Why social media algorithms feed you posts you dislike

Do your social media accounts feed you content that reflects your core beliefs and guiding principles? Our new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that the algorithms supplying your feeds may be prioritizing content that clashes with your values. That’s because the algorithms heavily weigh online posts that you reply to, and more often social media users tend to comment on content they take issue with than on content they agree with. Notably, our study of the X social media platform shows that although the X feed algorithm promotes content to both Democratic and Republican users that contradicts their values, it does so more extensively for Democrats. How content gets into your feed Social media platforms use powerful algorithms that select posts to display in your feed from a vast pool of possible content. On X, for example, posts appear on your screen as “For You” pages. The algorithms predict the likelihood you will engage with the content—click a “like” icon or add a comment. Then they use the accuracy of those predictions to tailor what they serve you next time. Platforms use these interactions to learn their users’ tendencies. But …