research-article

Turn and Face the Strange: Investigating Filter Bubble Bursting Information Interactions

Authors:

Stephann Makri,

Marisela Gutierrez LopezAuthors Info & Claims

CHIIR '22: Proceedings of the 2022 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval

Pages 233 - 242

https://doi.org/10.1145/3498366.3505822

Published: 14 March 2022 Publication History

Abstract

It is a ‘truth universally acknowledged’ that people prefer to minimize encounters with information they disagree with and ignore it where they find it. Algorithms purportedly support this avoidance by creating filter bubbles filled only with agreeable information potentially increasing polarisation and undermining democracy. How accurate is this portrayal, though? Recent research has begun to cast doubt. We challenge these assumptions and report a two-phase analysis of filter bubble-bursting behavior. The first phase reports novel incidental findings from an interview study on the role of information interaction in view change. Participants demonstrated a clear interest in a diversity of information, including information specifically opposed to their own views. The second phase reports findings from a diary study specifically designed to investigate people's interactions with information that reflected a different view to theirs. We examine how people found disagreeable information, how they responded to it and the factors affecting their responses. We find that people will sometimes actively seek and engage with disagreeable information, rather than avoid and ignore it. Our findings pave the way for future information interfaces that support this previously undiscussed information interaction.

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Cited By

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https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-95689-5.00172-3
Łajewska WBalog KSpina DTrippas JSakai TIshita EOhshima HHasibi FMao JJose J(2024)Can Users Detect Biases or Factual Errors in Generated Responses in Conversational Information-Seeking?Proceedings of the 2024 Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval in the Asia Pacific Region10.1145/3673791.3698409(92-102)Online publication date: 8-Dec-2024
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cover image ACM Conferences

CHIIR '22: Proceedings of the 2022 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval

March 2022

399 pages

ISBN:9781450391863

DOI:10.1145/3498366

General Chairs:
David Elsweiler
University of Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany
,
Udo Kruschwitz
University of Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany
,
Bernd Ludwig
University of Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany

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Published: 14 March 2022

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March 14 - 18, 2022

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https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-95689-5.00172-3
Łajewska WBalog KSpina DTrippas JSakai TIshita EOhshima HHasibi FMao JJose J(2024)Can Users Detect Biases or Factual Errors in Generated Responses in Conversational Information-Seeking?Proceedings of the 2024 Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval in the Asia Pacific Region10.1145/3673791.3698409(92-102)Online publication date: 8-Dec-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3673791.3698409
McKay DMakri SBuchanan G(2024)[citation needed]: An Examination of Types and Purpose of Evidence Provided in Three Online Discussions on RedditProceedings of the 2024 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval10.1145/3627508.3638321(219-230)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3627508.3638321
Sukiennik NGao CLi NChua TNgo CKa-Wei Lee RKumar RLauw H(2024)Uncovering the Deep Filter Bubble: Narrow Exposure in Short-Video RecommendationProceedings of the ACM Web Conference 202410.1145/3589334.3648159(4727-4735)Online publication date: 13-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3589334.3648159
McKay DMakri SGutierrez‐Lopez MPorlezza CMacfarlane ACooper GMissaoui S(2024)I'm the same, I'm the same, I'm trying to changeJournal of the Association for Information Science and Technology10.1002/asi.2488575:7(844-858)Online publication date: 15-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/asi.24885
Gao CWang SLi SChen JHe XLei WLi BZhang YJiang P(2023)CIRS: Bursting Filter Bubbles by Counterfactual Interactive Recommender SystemACM Transactions on Information Systems10.1145/359487142:1(1-27)Online publication date: 18-Aug-2023
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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-28032-0_10

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