Full article: Evaluating Echo Chambers, Rabbit Holes, and Radicalization Pathways on YouTube (opens in new tab)

To what extent does the YouTube recommendation algorithm push users into echo chambers, rabbit holes, or radicalization pathways? Using a novel method to estimate the ideology of YouTube videos and an original audit design, we demonstrate that YouTube users are in mild ideological echo chambers, but this is primarily driven by user behavior. We also demonstrate that the recommendation algorithm prioritizes content that is similar to what the user is currently watching, producing content rabbi...