Attitudinal and behavioral correlates of algorithmic awareness among German and U.S. social media users

Abstract With the increase in algorithms on social media, scholarship is increasingly focused “algorithmic literacy,” or users’ understanding of algorithms. Algorithmic literacy multi-faceted (knowledge, attitudes, and behavior), researchers are still uncovering how these facets connected. This article presents a preregistered survey media users from two western countries: United States (n = 990) Germany 1117). Results show key predictors algorithmic awareness—age, education, frequency use—are same both countries. Nevertheless, U.S. higher awareness more positive attitudes toward than German users, likely due to their overall usage. also indicate that predicts about filtering depending defense motivations accuracy behaviors counteract filtering. These patterns have implications for interventions increasing transparency.