Three-month feed manipulation experiments provide valid causal evidence against algorithmic polarization effects because they directly test
Three-month feed manipulation experiments provide valid causal evidence against algorithmic polarization effects because they directly test the proposed mechanism at sufficient duration to detect attitude change.
Allcott et al. (2020) found detectable effects on political polarization from just four weeks of Facebook deactivation, demonstrating that polarization-relevant attitude change can manifest in short experimental windows.
The framing requires experimental or quasi-experimental evidence with defensible aggregation arguments; rejecting three-month experiments as insufficient would eliminate the primary evidence base for any causal conclusion.
If algorithms were producing effects that compound over years, some detectable signal should appear in a three-month window among the most engaged users in the experimental sample.