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"Twitter can influence the behavior of its users. The carrot and stick of likes and abuse may have led some researchers to bend away from the norms that underlie scientific activity, like objectivity and organized skepticism. For example, scientists who made pronouncements on controversial topics — “Schools need to remain closed!” or “Masks harm kids!” — could find large partisan audiences who appreciated those conclusions, perhaps more than the quality of the reasoning that led to them. Once followers became fans, some scientists may have been reluctant to revise or reverse their conclusions in light of new evidence if doing so risked backlash."
