US 2020 FIES NORC Data Files

NORC at the University of Chicago Data Collector
Meta Platforms, Inc. Sponsor

2023-07-27

v1.1

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3886/0d26-d856

Published

This dataset has two levels of access: Public and Restricted.

• Public files can be downloaded directly from the dataset record. Typically, documentation files such as READMEs and codebooks are made public.
• Restricted data files require a Restricted Data Application and will be accessed through a secure virtual data enclave. Learn more about applying for restricted data.

Meta Platforms, Inc.

NORC at the University of Chicago and Meta Platforms, Inc. US 2020 FIES NORC Data Files. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-07-27. https://doi.org/10.3886/0d26-d856

U.S. 2020 Facebook and Instagram Election Study
Datasets

2020-09-01, 2021-02-01

United States

survey data

To collect the information for the study, Facebook partnered with NORC at the University of Chicago. The study was reviewed and approved by NORC’s Institutional Review Board.

The project design was a longitudinal survey framework consisting of six survey waves of data collection between September 2020 and February 2021.

Study participants came from three sample sources:

• users of Facebook and Instagram (six survey waves)
• NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel® (five survey waves)
• an address-based sample (five waves), which provided a random cross-section of households sampled from the U.S. Postal Service Delivery Sequence File

In addition to administering surveys in a longitudinal framework, NORC also obtained consent and collected additional data from participants, including passive tracking of app usage on smartphones and in-browser websites visited on smartphones and computers, participants’ Facebook and/or Instagram log files, Twitter user data, and publicly available data files regarding voter behavior and campaign donations.

See the codebooks for variables present in this dataset.

Longitudinal

The U.S. 2020 Facebook and Instagram Election Study (US 2020 FIES) is a partnership between Meta and academic researchers to understand the impact of Facebook and Instagram on key political attitudes and behaviors during the US 2020 election.

How do social media feed algorithms affect attitudes and behavior in an election campaign?, Journal Article, DOI, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abp9364
Reshares on social media amplify political news but do not detectably affect beliefs or opinions, Journal Article, DOI, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.add8424
Like-minded sources on Facebook are prevalent but not polarizing, Journal Article, DOI, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06297-w
Asymmetric ideological segregation in exposure to political news on Facebook, Journal Article, DOI, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ade7138