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  4. December 2025
  5. Web Search Personalization during the US 2020 Election

American Economic Review: Insights

ISSN 2640-205X (Print) | ISSN 2640-2068 (Online)

Web Search Personalization during the US 2020 Election

  • Ulrich Matter
  • Roland Hodler
American Economic Review: Insights
vol. 7, no. 4, December 2025
(pp. 516–33)
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Abstract

We study the impact of web search personalization on ideological segregation in search results. We deploy 150 synthetic internet users with randomized partisan browsing preferences across 25 US cities. These users are active during the US 2020 election and its aftermath. Daily experiments in which the users enter identical election-related queries provide strong evidence for ideological segregation in search results across locations with different partisan leanings but only limited evidence for ideological segregation within location across users with different partisan browsing habits. We discuss the important role of the national and local (online) media landscape for understanding these results.

Citation

Matter, Ulrich, and Roland Hodler. 2025. "Web Search Personalization during the US 2020 Election." American Economic Review: Insights 7 (4): 516–33. DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20240115

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
  • D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
  • L82 Entertainment; Media
  • L86 Information and Internet Services; Computer Software