{
  "abstract": "This paper links the increasing prominence of social networks in politics to recent shock election outcomes. In our set-up, agents learning on a network suffer from confirmation bias – the tendency to ignore contrary evidence to one’s own belief. Our main result is that confirmation bias slows down learning in a wide class of networks. For any network, consensus fails to emerge when confirmation bias is above a threshold. We explore the implications for elections and media markets. Confirmation bias increases the likelihood of shock elections, and encourages media organizations already at the fringe to take on even more extreme views.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "University of Cambridge and Magdalene College, Cambridge CB3 0AG, UK",
    "Univ. of Cambridge",
    "University of Bristol, England, UK"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Edoardo Gallo",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1983-5027"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Alastair Langtry",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1709-9265"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0zgqssxm7gxpj.bib",
  "cited_by": 6,
  "doi": "10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2026.102907",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "0zgqssxm7gxpj",
  "issns": [
    "0176-2680",
    "1873-5703"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2026.102907",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "3109|Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W3096719503",
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-12",
  "publisher": "Elsevier BV",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0zgqssxm7gxpj.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T13:26:43Z",
      "native_id": "W3096719503",
      "source": "openalex",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2026.102907"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "openalex:3109|Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence",
      "subfield": "statistical-nonlinear"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Social networks, confirmation bias and shock elections",
  "title_text": "Social networks, confirmation bias and shock elections",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-03T13:20:27Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0zgqssxm7gxpj",
  "venue": "European Journal of Political Economy",
  "versions": []
}