Political Science
Blocking of counter-partisan accounts drives political assortment on Twitter
C. Martel, M. Mosleh, et al.
Field experiments on Twitter reveal that political assortment isn't just due to homophily—people also actively prevent cross-partisan ties by blocking. Using human-like bot accounts, users were 12 times more likely to block counter-partisan accounts in the first study and 4 times more likely in the second versus neutral or copartisan accounts. A survey replication showed blocking often aims to avoid seeing content, with Democrats blocking counter-partisans more due to low-quality or slanted posts. Research conducted by Cameron Martel, Mohsen Mosleh, Qi Yang, Tauhid Zaman, and David G. Rand.
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