Extended Data Fig. 3: Engagement and Political Attitudes. LATE Estimates by Initial Feed Setting.
Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) estimates of the effect of switching the algorithm on (left panel) and switching it off (right panel) in SD. The left panel: the effect of moving from the chronological to the algorithmic feed for users initially on the chronological feed. Right panel: the effect of moving in the opposite direction for users initially on the algorithmic feed. “Chrono” and “Algorithm” refer to the chronological and algorithmic feeds, respectively. For each outcome, the results of two specifications are reported. In blue: the unconditional estimates with robust standard errors, controlling only for the initial feed setting and, where applicable, pre-treatment outcome levels. In orange: the conditional estimates, controlling for pre-treatment covariates using Generalized Random Forests (GRFs). 90% and 95% CIs are reported. Numerical effect sizes and p-values printed on the figure correspond to the conditional estimates (all tests are two-sided). The unit of observation is respondent. From top to bottom, sample sizes are n = 4965, n = 3337, n = 4965, n = 4965, n = 4596, n = 4596, and n = 4850. Methods describe the tests. SI Table S2.16 reports the exact numerical point estimates, standard errors, confidence intervals and sample sizes for every specification. All outcomes are standardized.
