Information gerrymandering and undemocratic decisions

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 573; no. 7772; pp. 117 - 121
• Main Authors: Stewart, Alexander J., Mosleh, Mohsen, Diakonova, Marina, Arechar, Antonio A., Rand, David G., Plotkin, Joshua B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.09.2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/181/1403; 639/705/1041; 706/689; Apportionment; Automation; Bias; Decision analysis; Decision Making; Democracy; Elections; Experiments; Game Theory; Group Processes; Human subjects; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Information flow; Information processing; Information systems; Knowledge; Letter; Mathematical analysis; Models, Theoretical; Morality; multidisciplinary; Partisanship; Politics; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Social Media; Social Networking; Social networks; Social organization; Trends; Truth Disclosure; United States; Europe; United States > US

People must integrate disparate sources of information when making decisions, especially in social contexts. But information does not always flow freely. It can be constrained by social networks 1 – 3 and distorted by zealots and automated bots 4 . Here we develop a voter game as a model system to s...