The social dilemma of online segregation: A dynamical model of platform choice

Sven Banisch, Dennis Jacob, Tom Willaert, Eckehard Olbrich, Institute of Technology Futures, Department of Sociology and Computational Sociology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, EECS Computer Science Division, UC Berkeley, Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences

Rationality and Society

Published online on March 24, 2026

Abstract

Rationality and Society, Ahead of Print.
To understand how social media shapes online discourse or contributes to polarization, we need models of collective online choice that link users’ behavioral adaptation to the emergence of complex and dynamic digital environments. This study develops a ...