The posts that get the most clicks are confrontational and angry. And those clicks drive up a post’s hit rate, which raises its ranking in both Google and Facebook. That in turn draws even more clicks and shares. In the best (worst) cases—we see them daily—the story or clip goes viral and reaches tens or even hundreds of millions of people. And we all step deeper into our bubbles. This is how these algorithms reinforce polarization in our society. We may think of ourselves as rational creatures, but deep in our brain is the impulse for survival, and it divides the world into us vs. them.
