Piotr Zagórski

The political effects of X's feed algorithm https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2 Received: 16 December 2024 Accepted: 4 January 2026 Published online: 18 February 2026 Open access • Check for updates Germain Gauthier,5, Roland Hodler?5, Philine Widmer35 & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya3,4,5 m Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects'. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk's platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users' feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

A new paper shows that less than 2 months of exposure to Twitter’s algorithmic feed significantly shifts people’s political views to the right.

Moving from chronological feed to the algorithmic feed also increases engagement.

This is one of the most concerning papers I’ve read in awhile.

🇵🇱⚖️President Nawrocki vetoes the law reforming the National Council of Judiciary, dispelling any hopes the Polish government had of reforming the rule of law through new legislation. Major, but expected, defeat for the new MoJ Waldemark Żurek and his plans. 1/

Transatlantic TikTok propaganda and the end of localised populism  TikTok deportation propaganda is fast becoming the new border wall. States, platforms and algorithms are fusing into a single machine. This, says Mimi Mihăilescu is turning deportation into bingeable content, burying resistance in the feed, and replacing physical walls with algorithmic control. Local populism dies and global spectacle rules

'Turning deportation into bingeable content'. What a time to be alive

YouTube video by Juan Linz Institute Why to choose our Master?

🎓 Thinking about a research career in Social Sciences?

Our program offers rigorous methodological training, close mentoring, and an international research environment — ideal preparation for competitive PhD programs.

🌍 Join our academic community in Madrid. Apply now!
www.uc3m.es/master/socia...

🚨📄 New paper (conditional accepted at @thejop.bsky.social):

We test whether social desirability bias actually distorts answers in online surveys.

Short version:
It mostly doesn’t.

w. @timallinger.bsky.social @kristianvsf.bsky.social @morganlcj.bsky.social

URL: osf.io/preprints/os...

The stakes of the election could not be higher: if Orbán wins, #Hungary will continue its slide into autocracy domestically and will keep blocking joint action at the EU level. 🇭🇺 🇪🇺

@centreeuropeanref.bsky.social insight by @zecsaky.bsky.social

Read here: buff.ly/MtJXrKQ

🇵🇱⚖️I promised a banger on the rule-of-law crisis in Poland, so... here it is. A group of PiS MPs have lodged a case with the Constitutional Tribunal, asking it to find the rules of electing the judges of the same Tribunal, introduced in 2016 by a PiS majority, to be unconstitutional. 1/

Young women are the future of progressive politics... and they want to/will leave the U.S. in record numbers. I see this among my students too.

☀️☀️ Exciting news in Madrid!

We are VERY happy to officially announce the creation of the Instituto Juan Linz (aka “IJL”).
ijlinz.es

The IJL ("Juan Linz Institute" in English) is dedicated to cutting-edge research and teaching in political science, sociology, economic history and more.
thread 1/12

Immunising the Venice Commission Against Autocratic Contamination

"It is at the very least inconsistent to warn against rule of law regression and violations while failing to police one’s own membership. We are where we are because too many in senior positions who had and have the power to act have failed to do so."

Important piece by Bodnar and Pech:

What Poland has achieved over the last couple of decades is just incredible. Look at that line! Seriously impressive

Stacked bar chart showing that a declining share of Americans, especially Republicans, say they support all or most of President Donald Trump's plans and policies. The chart is based on Pew Research Center surveys of U.S. adults conducted in February 2025 and January 2026.

A narrow majority of Republicans (56%) now say they support all or most of Donald Trump's plans and policies, down from two-thirds (67%) in February 2025. It's one of several measures of a loosening GOP support for Trump in a new @pewresearch.org survey: www.pewresearch.org/politics/202...

America Is Now a Family Business Trump is transforming the constitutional republic into a patrimonial regime before our eyes.

Can Trump be stopped? Thoughts on one year of America as a family business

www.persuasion.community/p/the-patrim...

Political scientists see non-violent resistance as much more effective--and it's not just from aggregate statistics. Rather, it's the way that peaceful resistance undermines the state's repressive capacities.

This op-ed by Berkeley prof @owasow.bsky.social explains this logic 🎯.

Give it a read!

Opinion | This Theory Explains Trump’s Baffling Foreign Policy

This Theory Explains Trump’s Baffling Foreign Policy www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/o...

Trump wants our attention. Let’s stop falling for his geopolitical clickbait | Catherine De Vries Whether he’s targeting Greenland, tariffs or Iran, Trump’s agenda is to distract – because a Europe that is always reacting is never planning, says political scientist Catherine De Vries

Today in @theguardian.com, I argue that Donald Trump’s foreign-policy playbook is increasingly about attention capture, or what I call geopolitical clickbait.

Plus I outline why this matters for Europe & what to do about it.

🧵

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Bucking a Global Trend, Spain Offers Undocumented Migrants a Legal Way to Stay

Bucking a Global Trend, Spain Offers Undocumented Migrants a Legal Way to Stay www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/w...

Polish ex-president lands role at US Project 2025 think tank Andrzej Duda’s job at the influential Heritage Foundation underlines how nationalist right-wing politics have become international.

Former Polish president Andrzej Duda has joined the conservative U.S. Heritage Foundation as a distinguished visiting fellow.

Open access - observational evidence linking affective polarization to support for undemocratic practices from a context of high polarization & significant democratic backsliding

🇵🇱⚖️ We've reached a crucial point in the Polish rule-of-law crisis: a court found a divorce null and void due to a "neo-judge" presiding over the proceedings. Given how quick, easy, and fast access to divorce is in the country, this story will make waves. 1/

📰 Issue 33:2 out! 👉 Special Issue: European Democracy in Action? The 2024 European Parliament Elections, guest edited by @sarahobolt.bsky.social, Sebastian-Adrian Popa, and Wouter van der Brug

Read the whole issue: www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjpp20/3...

📸 © European Union 2024 - Source : EP

The Age of Academic Slop is Upon Us what happens when AI automates "normal science"?

I just finished a three-year term as an editor at an international relations journal. I began at the start of the LLM era but ended right in the middle of it. Our volume of submissions tripled and our desk reject rate rose to 75%. I have some thoughts.
open.substack.com/pub/hegemon/...

Very happy to see this out in CPS! We study class identities and their social and political relevance over several decades in Britain, Denmark, Norway, and the US. A small thread:

journals.sagepub.com/eprint/SIRW4...

‼️ New paper out at @electoralstudies.bsky.social with the fantastic Valentin Pautonnier, Michael Lewis-Beck and Richard Nadeau!

doi.org/10.1016/j.el...

A short 🧵 on what it's about and what we find

4/4 Even with left-authoritarian supply, it is still congruence on immigration that most strongly predicts far-right voting. Yet, the surplus of left-authoritarian attitudes in CEE makes combined anti-immigration and pro-redistribution appeals a potent formula for electoral success. Will WE follow?

3/4 It was through a combination of pro-redistribution and anti-immigrant positions – addressing a representational void on the economic axis while shifting culturally in response to the 2015 refugee crisis – that PiS succeeded in both gaining and maintaining political dominance.

2/4 PiS has always positioned itself on the economic left, often further than its voters. It only shifted toward anti-immigrant positions after the 2015 refugee crisis. Prior to that, cultural incongruence – with voters more xenophobic than the party – had a negative effect on its electoral outcome.

📣 Kicking off 2026 with a new article in @eepolitics.bsky.social!

When do voters with left-wing economic views support populist radical right parties?

Many supporters of 🇵🇱 PiS are left-authoritarians (left-wing econ & authoritarian socio-cult views)... 1/4 👇

www.tandfonline.com/eprint/EISET...

3 presents in last few days😀 Must have behaved. A chapter on electoral turnout in The Oxford Handbook of Polish Politics, a paper on left-authoritarianism & far-right forthcoming in @eepolitics.bsky.social and a paper on war fatigue accepted in
@jei-publication.bsky.social 🤩
doi.org/10.1093/oxfo...

PhD opportunity at the University of Oxford. The Morelli scholarship funds a doctoral student to work with me on on democratic backsliding, strategies of democratic defense and regeneration, or the rise of illiberalism. Deadline Jan 9. More information at users.ox.ac.uk/~ssfc0073/