Engagement patterns favoring out-group animosity content do not establish that algorithmic amplification causes affective polarization when direct experimental manipulation of algorithms produces null polarization effects.
Guess et al. (2023) directly manipulated the algorithmic feed and found no detectable effect on affective polarization despite substantial changes in content exposure.
Nyhan et al. (2023) experimentally reduced like-minded source exposure and found no effect on affective polarization, ideological extremity, or candidate evaluations.
Observational correlations between engagement and out-group content do not establish causation when experimental interventions on the proposed causal pathway produce null effects.
Is the literature really agreed that defects of kind K bias inferences in direction B, or is the bias direction itself contested?
Does study S actually have defect D, or is the description of S inaccurate?
Is the expected magnitude of the bias from D large enough to overturn S's reported effect, or is the effect robust to plausible bias corrections?
Has S (or a follow-up study) performed a robustness check or sensitivity analysis that addresses defect D directly?
Is this critique applied consistently — i.e., would it apply to studies on the other side of the debate that share the same defect kind K?
Is H supported by independent studies that do not share defect D, such that S's defect does not undermine H itself?