Perceived Social Media Bias, Social Identity Threat, and Conspiracy Theory Ideation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Social media organizations have an obligation to filter and sometimes exclude content, often based on machine learning algorithms. This has resulted in perceptions of bias in social media. When individuals perceive that a social media system is designed to exclude their point of view, they may experience a loss of self-worth, based on their excluded point of view. As a result, they may resist and avoid the technology that seems biased against them to prevent further loss of self-worth. They might also believe in conspiracies about why social media is marginalizing their point of view and find new self-worth as a conspiracy theorist. Data from 225 individuals who are interested in the risks associated with vaccines indicate that Perceived Bias presents a Social Identity Threat, which, in turn, is associated with Resistance to IT and Conspiracy Theorist Ideation.