Gianmarco De Francisci Morales, Corrado Monti, and Michele Starnini.
Scientific Reports 11 (1), February 2021 (Nature Publishing Group)
The idea that social media create echo chambers overlooks how users actually interact across partisan lines. Studying millions of comments around the 2016 U.S. elections, this analysis finds that cross-cutting exchanges between Trump and Clinton supporters were more frequent than within-group ones, though asymmetrical and demographically patterned. The findings challenge the dominant polarization narrative, showing how political interaction networks can sustain contact even amid ideological division.