Who's Really Shaping What You Believe?
My new interactive tool to examine how diverse your close network and social media feeds really are, and what that means for your information environment.
How does who you know shape what you believe?
It’s a question I’ve spent years studying, starting early in graduate school. My research has found that the people we discuss important matters with (not casual acquaintances or social media contacts, but our real inner circle) have a strong influence on our beliefs. When everyone close to you shares the same political or religious views, those beliefs get reinforced and sustained. So, the more your inner circle agrees with you, the more certain you feel, even when a belief may be inaccurate.
What’s striking is how little it takes to disrupt this effect. Having even one person with different views in your close network is linked to significantly less extreme beliefs. One person! That finding has stayed with me since we first published it, and it’s the core insight behind this tool.
I explore this in more detail in my book and in my own research, and sometimes I’ll ask my classes to think about their own personal networks. However, I wanted to create something people could engage with directly, easily, and share with their own networks.
So today I’m sharing a new interactive tool to help you audit your own network diversity!
Introducing the Network Diversity Audit
The Network Diversity Audit is a free, browser-based worksheet that walks you through four steps:
List up to 6 people you discuss important matters with
Rate how similar their political and religious beliefs are to yours
Rate how often your social media feeds expose you to different viewpoints
See your Network Diversity Score and reflect on what it reveals
At the end, you’ll get a Network Diversity Score and four reflection questions designed to help you think critically about your close relationships and your information environment.
→ Try it here: matthewfacciani.github.io/network-diversity-audit
A few important notes: this tool is designed for reflection and educational purposes only. The scores are rough estimates meant to prompt reflection, not precise measurements. The exercise is grounded in my own research on personal network composition and misinformation susceptibility. The social media section draws on research into how social media shapes influence. I explore the underlying social science in more depth in Chapters 5 and 6 of my book.
The tool works on mobile too, though the desktop experience is better for the sliders. This is also version one, and I’d love your feedback, there’s a Google Form at the end to share your thoughts directly with me.
This is the second tool in a growing suite of free media literacy resources connected to Misguided. If you haven’t tried the Identity Map yet, I’d encourage you to try both! They measure related but distinct things, so you’ll get a comprehensive picture of potential identity and network biases to reflect on.
Share your score or feedback in the comments below or on social media. You can also share and compare your results with friends and family!