Is political ignorance bliss?

• Department of Political and Social Sciences

In the context of the Comparative Politics Seminar Series, this session features a presentation by Kevin Arceneaux (Sciences Po).

Nearly three billion people actively use Facebook, making it the largest social media platform in the world. Previous research shows that the social media platform reduces users’ happiness, while increasing political knowledge. It also may increase partisan polarisation. Working to build a scientific consensus, we test whether the potential negative effects of Facebook use can be overcome with the help of minimalist informational interventions that a parallel line of research has shown to be effective at inducing people to be more accurate and civil. We conducted a preregistered well-powered Facebook deactivation experiment during the 2022 French presidential election. In line with previous research, we find that Facebook reduces happiness, informs, and increases partisan polarisation but only among college educated individuals. In contrast, we find little evidence that minimalist informational interventions in a field setting helped individuals who deactivated Facebook to seek out news, be more accurate or less polarised.

(with Martial Foucault, CEVIPOF; Kalli Giannelos, CEVIPOF & Paris-Dauphine; Jonathan Ladd, Georgetown U; Can Zengin, CEVIPOF & Temple U)