In his article for Social Media + Society, Neely studies the phenomenon of politically motivated unfriending/unfollowing as a form of selective avoidance. The study examined the social media behaviours of a representative sample of adult Facebook users from Florida in the three months leading up to the US presidential election in 2020 to determine how common politically motived avoidance was and whether the users’ political affiliations (ie Republican, Democrat or Independent) had any impact on the likelihood of users participating in unfriending or unfollowing. Neely noted that previous studies by other researchers on the topic showed that this form of selective avoidance or exposure wasn’t purely driven by ideological views and that users also used unfriending/unfollowing as a form of “boundary regulation”, applying a credibility filter to the information they receive through their social networks

 

Neely’s study found that politically motivated avoidance was not largely influenced by a form a confirmation bias as has been suggested in other studies, but rather is a result of a range of factors and a better indicator of politically motivated avoidance was the user’s reliance of Facebook as a source of political information and their perception of the credibility of that information (p. 10). The findings also suggested that the user’s political affiliations could not be used as “a significant predicator of politically motivated avoidance” (Neely, 2021, p.10). While I haven’t read any other research on this topic, Neely’s findings support what I have viewed among my friends on Facebook.

 

Over the past two years during the COVID-19 pandemic I have observed a lot of information being shared by people in my network on Facebook. Most of the shared information has been from credible sources such as health officials while a small percentage has been from sources which show slight political leanings (ie conservative versus liberal views). On those however, my friends are still employing a credibility filter and not blindly sharing or reposting information that fits with their ideological viewpoint. One friend when sharing information of lockdowns in Europe, made comments which expressed that they were unsure if the information was credible or not. This shows anecdotal support for Neely’s findings. I have also participated in a form of selective avoidance by unfriending someone in my Facebook network who consistently posted views from less that credible sources that I didn’t agree with. While it is likely there was some degree of confirmation bias within my decision, I believe it largely confirms the findings of Neely’s and other studies that showed unfriending being used to regulate information being received from predominately credible sources.

 

GDJ. (2018). Web of connections var 2 [Clip art]. Openclipart. https://openclipart.org/detail/310829/web-of-connections-var-2

Neely, S. R. (2021). Politically motivated avoidance in social networks: A study of Facebook and the 2020 presidential election. Social Media + Society, 7(4), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211055438