Epistemic Overconfidence in Algorithmic News Selection
Autor(a) principal: | |
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Data de Publicação: | 2021 |
Outros Autores: | |
Tipo de documento: | Artigo |
Idioma: | eng |
Título da fonte: | Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
Texto Completo: | https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v9i4.4167 |
Resumo: | The process of news consumption has undergone great changes over the past decade: Information is now available in an ever-increasing amount from a plethora of sources. Recent work suggests that most people would favor algorithmic solutions over human editors. This stands in contrast to public and scholarly debate about the pitfalls of algorithmic news selection—i.e., the so-called “filter bubbles.” This study therefore investigates reasons and motivations which might lead people to prefer algorithmic gatekeepers over human ones. We expect that people have more algorithmic appreciation when consuming news to pass time, entertain oneself, or out of escapism than when using news to keep up-to-date with politics (H1). Secondly, we hypothesize the extent to which people are confident in their own cognitive abilities to moderate that relationship: When people are overconfident in their own capabilities to estimate the relevance of information, they are more likely to have higher levels of algorithmic appreciation, due to the third person effect (H2). For testing those two pre-registered hypotheses, we conducted an online survey with a sample of 268 US participants and replicated our study using a sample of 384 Dutch participants. The results show that the first hypothesis cannot be supported by our data. However, a positive interaction between overconfidence and algorithmic appreciation for the gratification of surveillance (i.e., gaining information about the world, society, and politics) was found in both samples. Thereby, our study contributes to our understanding of the underlying reasons people have for choosing different forms of gatekeeping when selecting news. |
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Epistemic Overconfidence in Algorithmic News Selectionalgorithmic appreciation; algorithmic gatekeepers; algorithmic news selection; third person effect; uses and gratificationsThe process of news consumption has undergone great changes over the past decade: Information is now available in an ever-increasing amount from a plethora of sources. Recent work suggests that most people would favor algorithmic solutions over human editors. This stands in contrast to public and scholarly debate about the pitfalls of algorithmic news selection—i.e., the so-called “filter bubbles.” This study therefore investigates reasons and motivations which might lead people to prefer algorithmic gatekeepers over human ones. We expect that people have more algorithmic appreciation when consuming news to pass time, entertain oneself, or out of escapism than when using news to keep up-to-date with politics (H1). Secondly, we hypothesize the extent to which people are confident in their own cognitive abilities to moderate that relationship: When people are overconfident in their own capabilities to estimate the relevance of information, they are more likely to have higher levels of algorithmic appreciation, due to the third person effect (H2). For testing those two pre-registered hypotheses, we conducted an online survey with a sample of 268 US participants and replicated our study using a sample of 384 Dutch participants. The results show that the first hypothesis cannot be supported by our data. However, a positive interaction between overconfidence and algorithmic appreciation for the gratification of surveillance (i.e., gaining information about the world, society, and politics) was found in both samples. Thereby, our study contributes to our understanding of the underlying reasons people have for choosing different forms of gatekeeping when selecting news.Cogitatio2021-11-18info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v9i4.4167oai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/4167Media and Communication; Vol 9, No 4 (2021): Algorithmic Systems in the Digital Society; 182-1972183-2439reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAPenghttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4167https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v9i4.4167https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4167/4167https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/downloadSuppFile/4167/1519Copyright (c) 2021 Mariken van der Velden, Felicia Loecherbachhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessvan der Velden, MarikenLoecherbach, Felicia2022-12-20T10:57:32Zoai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/4167Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-19T16:20:17.766657Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Epistemic Overconfidence in Algorithmic News Selection |
title |
Epistemic Overconfidence in Algorithmic News Selection |
spellingShingle |
Epistemic Overconfidence in Algorithmic News Selection van der Velden, Mariken algorithmic appreciation; algorithmic gatekeepers; algorithmic news selection; third person effect; uses and gratifications |
title_short |
Epistemic Overconfidence in Algorithmic News Selection |
title_full |
Epistemic Overconfidence in Algorithmic News Selection |
title_fullStr |
Epistemic Overconfidence in Algorithmic News Selection |
title_full_unstemmed |
Epistemic Overconfidence in Algorithmic News Selection |
title_sort |
Epistemic Overconfidence in Algorithmic News Selection |
author |
van der Velden, Mariken |
author_facet |
van der Velden, Mariken Loecherbach, Felicia |
author_role |
author |
author2 |
Loecherbach, Felicia |
author2_role |
author |
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv |
van der Velden, Mariken Loecherbach, Felicia |
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv |
algorithmic appreciation; algorithmic gatekeepers; algorithmic news selection; third person effect; uses and gratifications |
topic |
algorithmic appreciation; algorithmic gatekeepers; algorithmic news selection; third person effect; uses and gratifications |
description |
The process of news consumption has undergone great changes over the past decade: Information is now available in an ever-increasing amount from a plethora of sources. Recent work suggests that most people would favor algorithmic solutions over human editors. This stands in contrast to public and scholarly debate about the pitfalls of algorithmic news selection—i.e., the so-called “filter bubbles.” This study therefore investigates reasons and motivations which might lead people to prefer algorithmic gatekeepers over human ones. We expect that people have more algorithmic appreciation when consuming news to pass time, entertain oneself, or out of escapism than when using news to keep up-to-date with politics (H1). Secondly, we hypothesize the extent to which people are confident in their own cognitive abilities to moderate that relationship: When people are overconfident in their own capabilities to estimate the relevance of information, they are more likely to have higher levels of algorithmic appreciation, due to the third person effect (H2). For testing those two pre-registered hypotheses, we conducted an online survey with a sample of 268 US participants and replicated our study using a sample of 384 Dutch participants. The results show that the first hypothesis cannot be supported by our data. However, a positive interaction between overconfidence and algorithmic appreciation for the gratification of surveillance (i.e., gaining information about the world, society, and politics) was found in both samples. Thereby, our study contributes to our understanding of the underlying reasons people have for choosing different forms of gatekeeping when selecting news. |
publishDate |
2021 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2021-11-18 |
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
format |
article |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv |
https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v9i4.4167 oai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/4167 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v9i4.4167 |
identifier_str_mv |
oai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/4167 |
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv |
eng |
language |
eng |
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv |
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4167 https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v9i4.4167 https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4167/4167 https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/downloadSuppFile/4167/1519 |
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv |
Copyright (c) 2021 Mariken van der Velden, Felicia Loecherbach http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
rights_invalid_str_mv |
Copyright (c) 2021 Mariken van der Velden, Felicia Loecherbach http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
eu_rights_str_mv |
openAccess |
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv |
application/pdf |
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Cogitatio |
publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Cogitatio |
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv |
Media and Communication; Vol 9, No 4 (2021): Algorithmic Systems in the Digital Society; 182-197 2183-2439 reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação instacron:RCAAP |
instname_str |
Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
instacron_str |
RCAAP |
institution |
RCAAP |
reponame_str |
Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
collection |
Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
repository.name.fl_str_mv |
Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
repository.mail.fl_str_mv |
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1799130651749777408 |