The temporal dynamics of opinion formation on social media

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the synthesized of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 2015 and 2023, spanning 3 journals. Those papers have been cited 141 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 3 representative gaps

• The Role of Agents of Political Socialization in the Use of Social Media (2021) · Revista de Cercetare si Interventie Sociala · cited 1× · doi

  None of these studies examines whether the agents of political socialization (family, peers, schools, traditional media) moderate or amplify social media's effects on opinion formation differently across age groups, educational levels, or prior political engagement. One study documents that socialization agents correlate with social media use for news and participation, but does not test whether they buffer or intensify social media's influence on opinion change.

  generalsynthesized
  Keywords: none studies examines whether agents political socialization family
• The Group Roots of Social Media Politics: Social Sorting Predicts Perceptions of and Engagement in Politics on Social Media (2023) · Communication Research · cited 11× · doi

  The interaction between social sorting (alignment of racial, religious, ideological, and political identities) and exposure to ideologically heterogeneous content on social media has not been tested as a predictor of opinion change or polarization. While one study shows social sorting predicts perception of social media environments and engagement, and another shows network heterogeneity moderates polarization, no work combines these to examine whether high social sorting users resist opinion change when exposed to diverse viewpoints.

  generalsynthesized
  Keywords: interaction between social sorting alignment racial religious ideological
• Political persuasion on social media: Tracing direct and indirect effects of news use and social interaction (2015) · New Media & Society · cited 129× · doi

  The temporal dynamics of opinion formation on social media—how quickly opinions shift, whether changes persist, and how repeated exposure to conflicting viewpoints affects stability of political beliefs—remain unexplored across this set. Existing work documents that social media facilitates opinion change but does not track the trajectory or durability of that change.

  generalsynthesized
  Keywords: temporal dynamics opinion formation social media quickly opinions

Questions about this gap