Phenomena like echo chambers and societal polarization have often been linked to an individual preference for like-minded information (selective exposure). This view has been challenged recently: behavior on comment sections in online forums suggests the opposite dynamic, with users more likely to reply to attitudinally uncongenial content. Three experimental studies (total N = 1524) explore boundary conditions of this uncongeniality bias by measuring participants’ tendency to reply to comments on climate science. Studies 1 (student sample) and 2 (non-student sample) replicate the uncongeniality bias. However, Study 3 (representative for age and gender in Germany) yielded a surprising congeniality bias (a preference for replying to congenial comments) which was driven by participants with higher age. Further results across studies suggest that high confidence increases engagement (general likelihood to reply) but reduces antagonism (likelihood to reply to uncongenial content). Conversely, high knowledge reduces engagement but increases the uncongeniality bias.

中文翻译：

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人们在评论部分回复谁？态度（不）友善、年龄、信心和知识的影响

回声室和社会两极分化等现象通常与个人对志趣相投的信息的偏好（选择性曝光）有关。这种观点最近受到了挑战：在线论坛评论部分的行为表明了相反的动态，用户更有可能回复态度不一致的内容。三项实验研究（总计 N = 1524）通过测量参与者回复气候科学评论的倾向来探索这种不友善偏见的边界条件。研究 1（学生样本）和 2（非学生样本）复制了不合意的偏见。然而，研究 3（代表德国的年龄和性别）产生了令人惊讶的意气相投偏差（倾向于回复意气相投的评论），这是由年龄较大的参与者驱动的。研究的进一步结果表明，高信心会增加参与度（一般回复的可能性），但会减少对抗性（回复不合意的内容的可能性）。相反，高知识会降低参与度，但会增加不合意的偏见。