Incidental Exposure to Pro-Minority Content on Social Media in Pakistan

The next speaker in this IAMCR 2023 session is Marko M. Skoric, whose interest is in incidental exposure to political information on social media. The present study is especially interested in exposure to people of different religions, from the perspective of Pakistani users. Such exposure is also critical to the avoidance of ‘echo chambers’, of course – but the context of such exposure also matters, of course: for instance with respect to the (in)civility of the content that is encountered.

In Pakistan, exposure to pro-minority content on social media might be in the context of music, sports, or movies, for instance, but such exposure may also be moderated by perceived threats associated with the minority. The project tested these dynamics through a representative telephone survey of some 570 Pakistani social media users.

Incidental exposure to political information on social media also resulted in exposure to pro-minority content; such exposure did also support the development of tolerant political attitudes. This also has important implications for social media platform designs and business models: building in more incidental exposure might help reduce intolerance amongst and between social media communities.