Technology and Democracy: Understanding the influence of online technologies on political behaviour and decision-making

Details

JRC Science For Policy Report,
Publications Office of the European Union

Drawing from many disciplines, the report adopts a behavioural psychology perspective to argue that “social media changes people’s political behaviour”.

Four pressure points are identified and analysed in detail:

• the attention economy
• choice architectures
• algorithmic content curation and
• mis/disinformation.

Policy implications are outlined in detail.

S. Lewandowsky, L. Smillie, D. Garcia, et al., Technology and Democracy: Understanding the influence of online technologies on political behaviour and decision-making. EUR 30422 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg (2020)