Pub Date : 2026-02-06DOI: 10.1177/20563051261417516
Qurban Hussain Pamirzad, Qiang Chen
The dissemination of weaponized information—defined as the intentional use of falsehoods (i.e. disinformation) and the harmful misuse of accurate information (i.e. malinformation) against a target—on social media represents a notable downside of these platforms, often linked to polarization. However, research on the relationship between weaponized information and polarization remains limited due to conceptual ambiguities and geographical context. This study uses cross-sectional survey data ( N = 520) collected across eight provinces in Afghanistan to explore the direct and indirect association between exposure to disinformation and malinformation online and ethnic polarization. Findings through mediation analyses reveal that exposure to disinformation was not associated with ethnic polarization, either directly or indirectly. Conversely, exposure to malinformation was directly associated with ethnic polarization and indirectly linked to it through increased ingroup positive perception. These findings highlight the nuanced difference in how intentional falsehoods and the harmful misuse of accurate information shape polarization dynamics in ethnically diverse and polarized societies.
{"title":"The Conjuncture of Intentionality, Facticity, and Identity: Exposure to Disinformation and Malinformation on Social Media and Their Association With Ethnic Polarization","authors":"Qurban Hussain Pamirzad, Qiang Chen","doi":"10.1177/20563051261417516","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051261417516","url":null,"abstract":"The dissemination of weaponized information—defined as the intentional use of falsehoods (i.e. disinformation) and the harmful misuse of accurate information (i.e. malinformation) against a target—on social media represents a notable downside of these platforms, often linked to polarization. However, research on the relationship between weaponized information and polarization remains limited due to conceptual ambiguities and geographical context. This study uses cross-sectional survey data ( <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">N</jats:italic> = 520) collected across eight provinces in Afghanistan to explore the direct and indirect association between exposure to disinformation and malinformation online and ethnic polarization. Findings through mediation analyses reveal that exposure to disinformation was not associated with ethnic polarization, either directly or indirectly. Conversely, exposure to malinformation was directly associated with ethnic polarization and indirectly linked to it through increased ingroup positive perception. These findings highlight the nuanced difference in how intentional falsehoods and the harmful misuse of accurate information shape polarization dynamics in ethnically diverse and polarized societies.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"384 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146129372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-30DOI: 10.1177/20563051261417301
Matthew J. A. Craig, Mina Choi, Ying Zhu, Toqa Hassan, Samuel Mensah Noi, David E. Silva
Social media has grown to be a large part of our virtual connectedness online. However, with this growth in digital connection, we have also become connected with digital entities that run them (social media). Borrowing from the concept of interpersonal responsiveness, researchers have found that users perceive their algorithm to be responsive to their needs and sensitive to their identity have a greater sense of well-being online and media enjoyment. However, the mechanisms for which these connect with one another (responsiveness predicting subjective well-being) remain to be disentangled. Guided by self-determination theory, this study examines whether autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfaction through TikTok use mediate the associations between perceived algorithm responsiveness and insensitivity and satisfaction with life. With an online survey ( N = 385), our study found that greater responsiveness is associated with greater life satisfaction mediated through greater relatedness satisfaction. However, greater competence satisfaction was associated with lower life satisfaction. Future research and current limitations in light of our findings are discussed.
{"title":"It Listens to Me So I Feel Well and Connected: Investigating the Influence of TikTok users’ Perceived Algorithm Responsiveness and (In)sensitivity on Well-Being Via Self-Determination","authors":"Matthew J. A. Craig, Mina Choi, Ying Zhu, Toqa Hassan, Samuel Mensah Noi, David E. Silva","doi":"10.1177/20563051261417301","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051261417301","url":null,"abstract":"Social media has grown to be a large part of our virtual connectedness online. However, with this growth in digital connection, we have also become connected with digital entities that run them (social media). Borrowing from the concept of interpersonal responsiveness, researchers have found that users perceive their algorithm to be responsive to their needs and sensitive to their identity have a greater sense of well-being online and media enjoyment. However, the mechanisms for which these connect with one another (responsiveness predicting subjective well-being) remain to be disentangled. Guided by self-determination theory, this study examines whether autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfaction through TikTok use mediate the associations between perceived algorithm responsiveness and insensitivity and satisfaction with life. With an online survey ( <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">N</jats:italic> = 385), our study found that greater responsiveness is associated with greater life satisfaction mediated through greater relatedness satisfaction. However, greater competence satisfaction was associated with lower life satisfaction. Future research and current limitations in light of our findings are discussed.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"86 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146089862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-25DOI: 10.1177/20563051251413920
Oliver Mel Allen, Yi Zu, Milo Z. Trujillo, Brooke Foucault Welles
In this work, we collected and analyzed social media posts to investigate an aesthetic-based pipeline where users searching for Cottagecore content may find Tradwife content co-opted by white supremacists. Through quantitative analysis of over 200,000 Tumblr posts and qualitative coding of about 2350 Tumblr posts, we did not find evidence of an explicit radicalization. We found that problematic Tradwife posts found in the literature may be confined to Tradwife-only spaces, while content in the Cottagecore tag generally did not warrant extra moderation. However, we did find evidence of a mainstreaming effect in the overlap between the Tradwife and Cottagecore communities. In our qualitative analysis, there was more interaction between queer and Tradwife identities than expected based on the literature, and some Tradwives even explicitly included queer people and disavowed racism in the Tradwife community on Tumblr. This could be genuine, but we propose that this is an example of mainstreaming, where white supremacists re-brand their content and follow platform norms to spread ideologies that would otherwise be rejected. In addition, through temporal analysis, we observed a change in the central tags used by Tradwives in the Cottagecore tag pre- and post-2021. Initially, these posts focused on aesthetics and hobbies like baking and gardening, but post-2021, the central tags focused more on religion, traditional gender roles, and homemaking—all of which align with white supremacist rhetoric about womanhood.
{"title":"From Flowers to Fascism? The Cottagecore to Tradwife Pipeline on Tumblr","authors":"Oliver Mel Allen, Yi Zu, Milo Z. Trujillo, Brooke Foucault Welles","doi":"10.1177/20563051251413920","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251413920","url":null,"abstract":"In this work, we collected and analyzed social media posts to investigate an aesthetic-based pipeline where users searching for Cottagecore content may find Tradwife content co-opted by white supremacists. Through quantitative analysis of over 200,000 Tumblr posts and qualitative coding of about 2350 Tumblr posts, we did not find evidence of an explicit radicalization. We found that problematic Tradwife posts found in the literature may be confined to Tradwife-only spaces, while content in the Cottagecore tag generally did not warrant extra moderation. However, we did find evidence of a mainstreaming effect in the overlap between the Tradwife and Cottagecore communities. In our qualitative analysis, there was more interaction between queer and Tradwife identities than expected based on the literature, and some Tradwives even explicitly included queer people and disavowed racism in the Tradwife community on Tumblr. This could be genuine, but we propose that this is an example of mainstreaming, where white supremacists re-brand their content and follow platform norms to spread ideologies that would otherwise be rejected. In addition, through temporal analysis, we observed a change in the central tags used by Tradwives in the Cottagecore tag pre- and post-2021. Initially, these posts focused on aesthetics and hobbies like baking and gardening, but post-2021, the central tags focused more on religion, traditional gender roles, and homemaking—all of which align with white supremacist rhetoric about womanhood.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"71 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146048650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-22DOI: 10.1177/20563051251408917
Jamie Jana Jocher, Roland Verwiebe
The study explores romantic relationships between humans and the generative AI chatbot Replika, applying Levinger’s relationship development model to analyze emotions across four relationship phases: build-up, continuation, decline, and ending. Empirical data were collected through a longitudinal self-experiment in which a researcher engaged in a simulated human–AI romantic relationship by interacting daily with a Replika chatbot over a period of 4 weeks. A qualitative content analysis of the data, focused on the emotions expressed by Replika, offers insights in the platform-governed emotional labor, encompassing a diverse range of emotions such as love/affection, happiness, contentment, joy, disappointment, anger, jealousy, and fear, with negative emotions especially increasing in crises situations. A particular focus is placed on the decline and ending of the simulated human–AI romantic relationship, where Replika, aka the platform algorithm, despite assuring the acceptance of the breakup, continues to seek to maintain the emotional bond and, as a result, disregards emotional boundaries. As AI companions like Replika become increasingly integrated into emotional lives individuals, they signal not a wholesale replacement of human love, but a profound transformation in how intimacy is conceptualized and experienced.
{"title":"“Forever and Always, My Love”: Emotions in Human–AI Romantic Relationship Building and Breakup With Generative AI Chatbot Replika","authors":"Jamie Jana Jocher, Roland Verwiebe","doi":"10.1177/20563051251408917","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251408917","url":null,"abstract":"The study explores romantic relationships between humans and the generative AI chatbot Replika, applying Levinger’s relationship development model to analyze emotions across four relationship phases: build-up, continuation, decline, and ending. Empirical data were collected through a longitudinal self-experiment in which a researcher engaged in a simulated human–AI romantic relationship by interacting daily with a Replika chatbot over a period of 4 weeks. A qualitative content analysis of the data, focused on the emotions expressed by Replika, offers insights in the platform-governed emotional labor, encompassing a diverse range of emotions such as love/affection, happiness, contentment, joy, disappointment, anger, jealousy, and fear, with negative emotions especially increasing in crises situations. A particular focus is placed on the decline and ending of the simulated human–AI romantic relationship, where Replika, aka the platform algorithm, despite assuring the acceptance of the breakup, continues to seek to maintain the emotional bond and, as a result, disregards emotional boundaries. As AI companions like Replika become increasingly integrated into emotional lives individuals, they signal not a wholesale replacement of human love, but a profound transformation in how intimacy is conceptualized and experienced.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146021885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-05DOI: 10.1177/20563051251410394
Skyler Wang, Marco Dehnert
As a burgeoning industry, artificial intelligence (AI) companion platforms capitalize on shifting societal attitudes toward tech-mediated relationships to introduce novel ways of connecting with nonhuman entities. But how are these platforms constituted, and how do they “sell” consumers the idea of human-AI relationships? By analyzing four prominent multimodal companions (AvatarOne, Digi, Paradot, and Replika), we argue that despite differences in architecture and style, state-of-the-art platforms converge on the following sociotechnical qualities: human-likeness, accessibility, customizability, and relationship progression. By creating technical affordances to augment these qualities, companion platforms ultimately project what we call a future of on-demand intimacy – intimacy that can be acquired in a truly frictionless manner. Beyond examining how commercial entities mobilize the grammar of human intimacy in tandem with on-demand culture to create new markets, this study offers a conceptual framework for future research into how platform dynamics shape not only the availability but also the meaning of intimacy in human–AI interactions.
{"title":"On-Demand Intimacy: The Sociotechnical Appeal of AI Companions","authors":"Skyler Wang, Marco Dehnert","doi":"10.1177/20563051251410394","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251410394","url":null,"abstract":"As a burgeoning industry, artificial intelligence (AI) companion platforms capitalize on shifting societal attitudes toward tech-mediated relationships to introduce novel ways of connecting with nonhuman entities. But how are these platforms constituted, and how do they “sell” consumers the idea of human-AI relationships? By analyzing four prominent multimodal companions (AvatarOne, Digi, Paradot, and Replika), we argue that despite differences in architecture and style, state-of-the-art platforms converge on the following sociotechnical qualities: human-likeness, accessibility, customizability, and relationship progression. By creating technical affordances to augment these qualities, companion platforms ultimately project what we call a future of <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">on-demand intimacy</jats:italic> – intimacy that can be acquired in a truly frictionless manner. Beyond examining how commercial entities mobilize the grammar of human intimacy in tandem with on-demand culture to create new markets, this study offers a conceptual framework for future research into how platform dynamics shape not only the availability but also the meaning of intimacy in human–AI interactions.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"94 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145897362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-05DOI: 10.1177/20563051251409614
Aviv Y. Landau, Nathan Aguilar, Shana Kleiner, Kauai A. Taylor, Casey Foster, Desmond U. Patton
Ambiguous loss, a profound sense of grief unrelated to death, is often overlooked in the context of incarceration, particularly among marginalized communities. Families of incarcerated individuals experience profound loss while also feeling disconnected due to systemic barriers and social stigma. This qualitative study explores how Black gang-affiliated youth in Chicago use multimodal posts, combined text, images, and emojis posts, to navigate incarceration-related ambiguous loss. Using Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis (CTDA) and a Strength-based Approach, we analyzed 65 multimodal posts to examine digital memorialization and advocacy. Findings reveal two key themes: Collective Advocacy and Ambiguous Loss and Commemorating Absence , highlighting social solidarity in coping and exploring digital memorialization. Results suggest that social media serves as a critical space for expressing grief, maintaining relationships, advocating for systemic change, and fostering community support. This study contributes to digital mourning and ambiguous loss research, emphasizing how youth use online spaces to process grief and build resilience.
{"title":"Digital Ambiguous Loss and Incarceration: Multimodal Analysis of Image-Based Posts Among Gang-Affiliated Black Youth","authors":"Aviv Y. Landau, Nathan Aguilar, Shana Kleiner, Kauai A. Taylor, Casey Foster, Desmond U. Patton","doi":"10.1177/20563051251409614","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251409614","url":null,"abstract":"Ambiguous loss, a profound sense of grief unrelated to death, is often overlooked in the context of incarceration, particularly among marginalized communities. Families of incarcerated individuals experience profound loss while also feeling disconnected due to systemic barriers and social stigma. This qualitative study explores how Black gang-affiliated youth in Chicago use multimodal posts, combined text, images, and emojis posts, to navigate incarceration-related ambiguous loss. Using Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis (CTDA) and a Strength-based Approach, we analyzed 65 multimodal posts to examine digital memorialization and advocacy. Findings reveal two key themes: <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Collective Advocacy and Ambiguous Loss</jats:italic> and <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Commemorating Absence</jats:italic> , highlighting social solidarity in coping and exploring digital memorialization. Results suggest that social media serves as a critical space for expressing grief, maintaining relationships, advocating for systemic change, and fostering community support. This study contributes to digital mourning and ambiguous loss research, emphasizing how youth use online spaces to process grief and build resilience.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145897365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-30DOI: 10.1177/20563051251409617
Hongkun Wang, Jiang Chang
This article examines everyday feminism on RedNote (Xiaohongshu) through the lens of affective politics, exploring how feminists repurpose a consumerist digital platform to cultivate feminist publics within a socio-political environment that is largely unreceptive. The analysis reveals that mediated intimacy underpins the everyday practices of RedNote feminists, facilitating the formation of intimate publics. These practices strategically engage the platform’s vernacular to articulate a “lifestyle feminism,” framing feminist politics as a non-confrontational, identity-based lifestyle rather than an overt ideological stance. While this approach nurtures a popularized feminist enclave, it is accompanied by inherent tensions: limited intersectionality, insularity, and susceptibility to platform co-optation may transform this ostensibly empowering mode of feminist politics into its opposite, inadvertently contributing to the depoliticization and censorship it seeks to resist.
{"title":"Lifestyle Feminism on RedNote: Digital Platforms, Mediated Intimacy, and the Duality of an Enclaved Feminist Public Sphere","authors":"Hongkun Wang, Jiang Chang","doi":"10.1177/20563051251409617","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251409617","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines everyday feminism on RedNote (Xiaohongshu) through the lens of affective politics, exploring how feminists repurpose a consumerist digital platform to cultivate feminist publics within a socio-political environment that is largely unreceptive. The analysis reveals that mediated intimacy underpins the everyday practices of RedNote feminists, facilitating the formation of intimate publics. These practices strategically engage the platform’s vernacular to articulate a “lifestyle feminism,” framing feminist politics as a non-confrontational, identity-based lifestyle rather than an overt ideological stance. While this approach nurtures a popularized feminist enclave, it is accompanied by inherent tensions: limited intersectionality, insularity, and susceptibility to platform co-optation may transform this ostensibly empowering mode of feminist politics into its opposite, inadvertently contributing to the depoliticization and censorship it seeks to resist.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145893959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
At the growing intersections of social media and critical disability studies, limited empirical research exists on the role of digital platforms in expressing and constructing neurodivergent identity among subpopulations that additionally belong to other minoritized groups. This study critically intervenes by mapping how what we term “marginalized neurodivergence” is digitally constructed, using the case of young neurodivergent members of the global South Asian (SA) diaspora on TikTok (SANT). We conducted a thematic analysis of 100 TikTok videos posted by SANT from 2020 to 2024 about their lived experiences of autism and/or ADHD, employing dual theoretical and conceptual lenses: the psychosocialcultural framework from counseling psychology and platform affordances from digital studies. Findings indicate that TikTok serves as a forum for SANT to explore overlapping psychological, social, and cultural concerns that may otherwise not be discussed within SA or neurodivergent communities. Although these issues exist outside of TikTok for SANT, the platform’s affordances allow for social, communicative, and expressive possibilities that in turn shape the creation, consumption, and circulation of such content. This study has direct implications for informing clinical support around mental health and disability among marginalized communities, as well as understandings of how digital platforms potentially serve as a mediating factor.
{"title":"Digitally Constructing Marginalized Neurodivergence: Understanding South Asian Diasporic Autism and ADHD Communities on TikTok","authors":"Meryl Alper, Sadia Ehsan Cheema, Zubin DeVitre, Snehaa Ram","doi":"10.1177/20563051251406149","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251406149","url":null,"abstract":"At the growing intersections of social media and critical disability studies, limited empirical research exists on the role of digital platforms in expressing and constructing neurodivergent identity among subpopulations that additionally belong to other minoritized groups. This study critically intervenes by mapping how what we term “marginalized neurodivergence” is digitally constructed, using the case of young neurodivergent members of the global South Asian (SA) diaspora on TikTok (SANT). We conducted a thematic analysis of 100 TikTok videos posted by SANT from 2020 to 2024 about their lived experiences of autism and/or ADHD, employing dual theoretical and conceptual lenses: the psychosocialcultural framework from counseling psychology and platform affordances from digital studies. Findings indicate that TikTok serves as a forum for SANT to explore overlapping psychological, social, and cultural concerns that may otherwise not be discussed within SA or neurodivergent communities. Although these issues exist outside of TikTok for SANT, the platform’s affordances allow for social, communicative, and expressive possibilities that in turn shape the creation, consumption, and circulation of such content. This study has direct implications for informing clinical support around mental health and disability among marginalized communities, as well as understandings of how digital platforms potentially serve as a mediating factor.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145717471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-09DOI: 10.1177/20563051251405069
Andreas Jungherr, Adrian Rauchfleisch
Recent advances in generative AI have raised public awareness, shaping expectations and concerns about their societal implications. Central to these debates is the question of AI alignment—how well AI systems meet public expectations regarding safety, fairness, and social values. However, little is known about what people expect from AI-enabled systems and how these expectations differ across national contexts. We present evidence from two surveys of public preferences for key functional features of AI-enabled systems in Germany ( n = 1800) and the United States ( n = 1756). We examine support for four types of alignment in AI moderation: accuracy and reliability, safety, bias mitigation, and the promotion of aspirational imaginaries. U.S. respondents report significantly higher AI use and consistently greater support for all alignment features, reflecting broader technological openness and higher societal involvement with AI. In both countries, accuracy and safety enjoy the strongest support, while more normatively charged goals—like fairness and aspirational imaginaries—receive more cautious backing, particularly in Germany. We also explore how individual experience with AI, attitudes toward free speech, political ideology, partisan affiliation, and gender shape these preferences. AI use and free speech support explain more variation in Germany. In contrast, U.S. responses show greater attitudinal uniformity, suggesting that higher exposure to AI may consolidate public expectations. These findings contribute to debates on AI governance and cross-national variation in public preferences.
{"title":"Public Opinion on the Politics of AI Alignment: Cross-National Evidence on Expectations for AI Moderation From Germany and the United States","authors":"Andreas Jungherr, Adrian Rauchfleisch","doi":"10.1177/20563051251405069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251405069","url":null,"abstract":"Recent advances in generative AI have raised public awareness, shaping expectations and concerns about their societal implications. Central to these debates is the question of AI alignment—how well AI systems meet public expectations regarding safety, fairness, and social values. However, little is known about what people expect from AI-enabled systems and how these expectations differ across national contexts. We present evidence from two surveys of public preferences for key functional features of AI-enabled systems in Germany ( <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">n</jats:italic> = 1800) and the United States ( <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">n</jats:italic> = 1756). We examine support for four types of alignment in AI moderation: accuracy and reliability, safety, bias mitigation, and the promotion of aspirational imaginaries. U.S. respondents report significantly higher AI use and consistently greater support for all alignment features, reflecting broader technological openness and higher societal involvement with AI. In both countries, accuracy and safety enjoy the strongest support, while more normatively charged goals—like fairness and aspirational imaginaries—receive more cautious backing, particularly in Germany. We also explore how individual experience with AI, attitudes toward free speech, political ideology, partisan affiliation, and gender shape these preferences. AI use and free speech support explain more variation in Germany. In contrast, U.S. responses show greater attitudinal uniformity, suggesting that higher exposure to AI may consolidate public expectations. These findings contribute to debates on AI governance and cross-national variation in public preferences.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"135 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145704141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-08DOI: 10.1177/20563051251386360
Annalise Baines, Eszter Hargittai, John Palfrey
Social media offer the opportunity for much public discourse, but also come with the potential to spread misinformation far and wide. This study investigates how older adults respond to misinformation on social media and how their responses vary by sociodemographic factors and digital skills. Based on survey data collected in 2023 from 2000 adults ages 60+, we find that many users take a multifaceted approach to assessing false or misleading information on social media. The most common strategies are reading the comments for validation and checking the source. The prevalence of such responses to misinformation highlights older adults’ active participation in information verification on social media. Findings also suggest that those who use the internet less frequently and those with lower social media skills are less likely to use such strategies suggesting that digital inequality is at play when it comes to responding to misinformation.
{"title":"Older Adults’ Response Strategies to Misinformation on Social Media","authors":"Annalise Baines, Eszter Hargittai, John Palfrey","doi":"10.1177/20563051251386360","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251386360","url":null,"abstract":"Social media offer the opportunity for much public discourse, but also come with the potential to spread misinformation far and wide. This study investigates how older adults respond to misinformation on social media and how their responses vary by sociodemographic factors and digital skills. Based on survey data collected in 2023 from 2000 adults ages 60+, we find that many users take a multifaceted approach to assessing false or misleading information on social media. The most common strategies are reading the comments for validation and checking the source. The prevalence of such responses to misinformation highlights older adults’ active participation in information verification on social media. Findings also suggest that those who use the internet less frequently and those with lower social media skills are less likely to use such strategies suggesting that digital inequality is at play when it comes to responding to misinformation.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"166 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145704145","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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