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Research - 19.02.2026 - 11:00 

Algorithm on X effects political views in the USA

Recent study finds that the algorithms on X have an influence on its users in the USA and can shift their opinion in a pro-Republican direction.

Most Social Media sites use an algorithm to suggest content and to engage their users. On X, users were given the option to follow either posts suggested to them by the algorithm or simply to follow posts from accounts that users follow.  

Prof. Dr. Roland Hodler

Many users of X have thought that its algorithm promotes more conservative content, but prior research on whether social media algorithms can shape political views has been inconclusive.

Researchers wanted to know whether these algorithms have an effect on political beliefs and whether turning off the algorithm would have the opposite effect. 

The study, “The Political Effects of X's Feed Algorithm”, from HSG Professor Roland Hodler, Germain Gauthier, Philine Widmer, and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, recruited about 5,000 active US users of X (formerly Twitter) and randomly assigned each of them to either: 

  • The algorithmic feed (the “For You”) option, which shows recommended content, reorders posts, and adds posts from accounts you don’t follow. 
  • Or the chronological (“Following”) feed, which only shows posts from accounts you follow, starting with the most recent.


The participants were asked to stick to the assigned feed setting for seven weeks, and they were surveyed before and after these seven weeks. In addition, the researchers collected data on the content of feeds and on whom the participants followed on X.

 

Five key findings

The research team found five main findings:

  1. Turning on X’s algorithmic feed shifted political opinions towards the right after seven weeks of exposure. Among those who used the chronological feed to start, those randomized to the algorithmic feed were more likely to prioritize Republican policy issues, view investigations into Trump as unacceptable, and express more pro-Kremlin views on Ukraine than those randomized to stay on the chronological feed.
     
  2. Turning the algorithm off had no effect on political attitudes. This asymmetry was very surprising at first. 
     
  3. The algorithm promoted engaging posts by right-wing political activists and demoted posts by traditional news outlets. “It was shocking to see how the algorithm promotes simplistic and often polarizing statements by political activists rather than high-quality journalism,“ said Roland Hodler.
     
  4. The exposure to algorithmic content led users to follow right-wing political activist accounts, which were promoted by the algorithm. Users continued to follow these accounts even after the algorithm was switched off, which explains the asymmetry in the effects of switching to the algorithm on versus off.
     
  5. Finally, we found strong effects on opinions about current policy issues but no effects on self-reported partisanship. This suggests that opinions on current issues may be more malleable and shift more quickly than deeper political identities, which may require much longer to shift than an experiment lasting several weeks.


The study, “The Political Effects of X's Feed Algorithm”, was authored by Roland Hodler from the University of St.Gallen, Germain Gauthier from Bocconi University, and Philine Widmer and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya from the Paris School of Economics and was published in Nature.


Main image: Adobe Stock / Myvector

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