Feeling Informed and Feeling Heard: Recommender Systems Usage and Political Efficacy

This study explores the relationship between recommender systems (RS) usage and users’ political efficacy, which reflects citizens’ beliefs in their political competence (internal efficacy) and in political systems’ responsiveness (external efficacy). Through a representative Dutch sample (N = 2,930), we analyzed RS usage across seven digital platforms. Examining overall RS usage, we found that frequent users report higher internal efficacy via more perceived exposure to political information and higher external efficacy via higher perceived opinion congruence. Considering platform-specific RS usage, we identified four user groups: RS avoiders, RS for news, RS for trends, and RS for brands. They varied in political information perceptions and internal efficacy, with platform usage controlled. Together, these findings challenge concerns that RS usage deters users from political content yet support the concern that it is linked with opinion-congruent information.