Using Twitter to keep in touch with politicians and political debates is common among a growing number of people, but research from UC Davis reminds us that the majority of Twitter users aren’t using the platform for that end.

“Those users who do follow political accounts on Twitter, however, stick to insular online communities and mostly follow and share information from their political in-group,” the researchers explain.

Echo chambers

The researchers suggest that while we shouldn’t dismiss fears about online echo chambers, the number of people who do display such tendencies represents a relatively small proportion of the overall user base. Nonetheless, those who are politically engaged do follow political figures who match their personal biases, and often engage in one-sided dialog with them.

The findings emerged after analyzing four years’ worth of data from around 1.5 million Twitter users. They found that while there are indeed a small proportion of users who openly display political biases, this group should not be discounted and can be quite consequential due to the high level of activity they show. This can amplify the perception of polarization online.

Indeed, the researchers found that just 40% of Twitter users follow politicians, journalists, or pundits at all, with the remaining 60% steering clear of the space entirely.

“Given that we analyzed over 2,500 American political elite accounts including Donald Trump, Joe Biden, prominent pundits including Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity, and the most popular media outlets such as MSNBC and Fox News, the fact that only 23% of the representative sample of over 1.5 million users follow three of more of such elite accounts is revealing,” the researchers continue.

Following the in-group

There are signs of echo chambers emerging among those who do use Twitter for politics, however, as they were found to follow and engage with those from their in-group significantly more than those from their out-group (90% vs 10%). What’s more, they would share the tweets of their ingroup 13 times more often than those of their out-group. When those out-group tweets are shared, they’re usually accompanied by critical commentary.

“Overall, the majority of American Twitter users are not sufficiently interested in politics to follow even a single political or media elite from our list,” the researchers explain.

This is a somewhat surprising finding, as Twitter has a reputation for being highly political (and highly polarized). Despite the politically-engaged population online being smaller than previously thought, the authors urge us not to overlook them or believe that they aren’t contributing to a decline in support for democratic norms and polarized discourse.

“At the same time,” they conclude, “we have to remember that these political biases are far removed from the everyday online behaviors of most politically disinterested Americans, who simply don’t care and prefer to immerse themselves in entertainment or sports. Our findings should help us all keep in perspective the concerns about the so-called ‘echo chambers’ online.”