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      The triple‐filter bubble: Using agent‐based modelling to test a meta‐theoretical framework for the emergence of filter bubbles and echo chambers

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          Abstract

          Filter bubbles and echo chambers have both been linked recently by commentators to rapid societal changes such as Brexit and the polarization of the US American society in the course of Donald Trump's election campaign. We hypothesize that information filtering processes take place on the individual, the social, and the technological levels (triple‐filter‐bubble framework). We constructed an agent‐based modelling (ABM) and analysed twelve different information filtering scenarios to answer the question under which circumstances social media and recommender algorithms contribute to fragmentation of modern society into distinct echo chambers. Simulations show that, even without any social or technological filters, echo chambers emerge as a consequence of cognitive mechanisms, such as confirmation bias, under conditions of central information propagation through channels reaching a large part of the population. When social and technological filtering mechanisms are added to the model, polarization of society into even more distinct and less interconnected echo chambers is observed. Merits and limits of the theoretical framework, and more generally of studying complex social phenomena using ABM, are discussed. Directions for future research such as ways of comparing our simulations with actual empirical data and possible measures against societal fragmentation on the three different levels are suggested.

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          Evaluating collaborative filtering recommender systems

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            Integration theory and attitude change.

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                daniel.geschke@idz-jena.de
                Journal
                Br J Soc Psychol
                Br J Soc Psychol
                10.1111/(ISSN)2044-8309
                BJSO
                The British Journal of Social Psychology
                John Wiley and Sons Inc. (Hoboken )
                0144-6665
                2044-8309
                12 October 2018
                January 2019
                : 58
                : 1 , Special Section: Understanding Rapid Societal Change ( doiID: 10.1111/bjso.2019.58.issue-1 )
                : 129-149
                Affiliations
                [ 1 ] Institut für Demokratie und Zivilgesellschaft (Institute for Democracy and Civil Society, IDZ) Jena Germany
                [ 2 ] BIGSSS Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences Jacobs University Bremen Germany
                [ 3 ] Department of Computational Social Science GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences Cologne Germany
                [ 4 ] Leibniz‐Institut für Wissensmedien IWM (Knowledge Media Research Center) Tübingen Germany
                Author notes
                [*] [* ]Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Daniel Geschke, IDZ Institut für Demokratie und Zivilgesellschaft, Talstr. 84, 07743 Jena, Germany (email: daniel.geschke@ 123456idz-jena.de ).
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5547-7848
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7539-6992
                Article
                BJSO12286
                10.1111/bjso.12286
                6585863
                30311947
                cb326148-f1ee-49b1-a4dc-23a052b0aea0
                © 2018 The Authors. British Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society

                This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

                History
                : 29 December 2017
                : 13 September 2018
                Page count
                Figures: 6, Tables: 1, Pages: 21, Words: 9911
                Funding
                Funded by: German Research Foundation (DFG)
                Award ID: LO2024/2‐1
                Funded by: EU Research & Innovation Programme Horizon 2020
                Award ID: 687916
                Categories
                Special Section Paper
                Special Section Papers
                Custom metadata
                2.0
                bjso12286
                January 2019
                Converter:WILEY_ML3GV2_TO_NLMPMC version:5.6.4 mode:remove_FC converted:20.06.2019

                agent‐based modelling,echo chamber effect,filter bubble,social media,attitude polarization

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