Piccardi et al. 2025 does not provide robust causal evidence that algorithmic ranking causes population-level affective polarization because
Piccardi et al. 2025 does not provide robust causal evidence that algorithmic ranking causes population-level affective polarization because the key effect becomes non-significant under population reweighting.
Piccardi et al. (2025) supplementary reweighting to match the X user population rendered the post-treatment Reduced Exposure effect non-significant, undermining the claim of a robust population-generalizable causal effect.
The study recruited only X users whose feeds normally contained at least 5 percent political content during a high-salience election period, limiting generalizability to the broader US adult population.
The 2024 deactivation experiment with over 35,000 Facebook and Instagram users found effects on affective and issue polarization precisely estimated and close to zero.