The Facebook Algorithm's Active Role in Climate Advertisement Delivery

The Facebook Algorithm's Active Role in Climate Advertisement Delivery | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article The Facebook Algorithm's Active Role in Climate Advertisement Delivery Aruna Sankaranarayanan, Erik Hemberg, Piotr Sapiezynski, Una-May O'Reilly This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4204078/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 13 Jun, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Climate Change → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Communication strongly influences attitudes toward climate change. In the advertising ecosystem, we can distinguish actors with adversarial stances: organizations with contrarian or advocacy communication goals towards climate action, who direct the advertisement delivery algorithm to launch ads in different destinations by specifying targets and campaign objectives. We present a 2 part study; part 1 is an observational study (N=275,632) and part 2 is a controlled (M=650) study. Collectively, they indicate that the advertising delivery algorithm could be actively influencing climate discourse, asserting statistically significant control over advertisement destinations, characterized by U.S. state, gender type, or age range. Further, algorithmic decision-making might be affording a cost advantage to climate contrarians. These findings have implications for climate communications and misinformation research, revealing consequential ways in which the advertising algorithm could be skewing delivery decisions away from targeting intentions, thereby influencing audience attitudes towards climate change. Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Climate change/Attribution Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Climate change/Climate-change impacts/Governance advertising climate change social media polarization Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 13 Jun, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Climate Change → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4204078","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":295292228,"identity":"910f0476-1d79-4679-b005-d7fafc84615b","order_by":0,"name":"Aruna Sankaranarayanan","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAApklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYPACGwY2EMVDgpY0BjY2ErUcZmAgWgv/7DNmD378OR/NJ9/A+OBtGxFaJM7lmBv2tt3ObWNjYDacS4wWhjM8ZhK8DWAtbNK8xGiRB2qR/PPnHEgL+2+itBgAtUjzsB0A28JMlBbDM2xl0rJtyUAtic2Sc84RoUXuDPM2yTd/7HLnNx8++OFNGRFakABjA2nqR8EoGAWjYBTgBgADPC6cc0/t8gAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"MIT","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Aruna","middleName":"","lastName":"Sankaranarayanan","suffix":""},{"id":295292229,"identity":"478ebdba-a49a-4d6b-8ff0-7f94f98a274b","order_by":1,"name":"Erik Hemberg","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"CSAIL, MIT","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Erik","middleName":"","lastName":"Hemberg","suffix":""},{"id":295292230,"identity":"890de383-e7c0-48ad-8174-daa63b79d242","order_by":2,"name":"Piotr Sapiezynski","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Piotr","middleName":"","lastName":"Sapiezynski","suffix":""},{"id":295292231,"identity":"fa875344-2866-4379-8cb3-77f68620dc1c","order_by":3,"name":"Una-May O'Reilly","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"CSAIL, MIT","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Una-May","middleName":"","lastName":"O'Reilly","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-04-02 05:45:14","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4204078/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4204078/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02326-w","type":"published","date":"2025-06-13T04:00:00+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":84597346,"identity":"b45d98af-14d7-4f72-9f5d-59d91f17ceb8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-14 07:10:27","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1446389,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"TheFacebookAlgorithmsActiveRoleinClimateAdvertisementDeliveryNatureClimateChange.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4204078/v1_covered_f02ad6c5-ffcb-4db8-b9e4-adf27df6d81f.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"The Facebook Algorithm's Active Role in Climate Advertisement Delivery","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"advertising, climate change, social media, polarization","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4204078/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4204078/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Communication strongly influences attitudes toward climate change. 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