Is Facebook can making us MORE political:? Researchers find we take more notice of friends we are politically aligned with Study dubbed Facebook 'the great divider' Claims people stick with their own circles of politically similar friends Says Facebook's algorithms could be more partisan Facebook can boost our political leanings dramatically - and cause us to ignore friends we don't agree with, researchers have claimed. A Georgia Institute of Technology study found users tend to stick in their own circles and become more polarised. It also claimed Facebook's own algorithms should be tweaked to make more partisan stories appear. The Georgia Institute of Technology study found users tend to stick in their own circles and ignore friends whose beliefs they don't agree with. The study surveyed more than 100 politically active Facebook users in the spring of 2013 amid debates about budgets cuts, gay marriage and gun control regulations. The majority of participants were liberal, female and under the age of 40, mirroring the traditional Facebook user. More than 70 percent said they don't talk about politics with their friends with different opinions. When they saw something they didn't agree with, 60 percent said they ignored it and didn't comment. When they did, sometimes it made the person question the relationship and disassociate and from the friend. People are mainly friends with those who share similar values and interests. 'They tend to interact with them the most, a phenomenon called homophily,' said Catherine Grevet, the Georgia Tech Ph.D. student who led the study. But that means they rarely interact with the few friends with differing opinions. 'As a result, they aren't exposed to opposing viewpoints.' People who think the majority of their friends have differing opinions than their own engage less on Facebook, the researchers discovered. For those who choose to stay logged in and politically active, the research found that most tend to stick in their own circles, ignore those on the other side and become more polarized. The study also found Facebook may be partly to blame - as its algorithms learn what we like. Grevet suggests that the social media site should sprinkle in a few status updates on both sides of political issues. That would expose people to different opinions, which are typically held by weak ties. 'Designing social media toward nudging users to strengthen relationships with weak ties with different viewpoints could have beneficial consequences for the platform, users and society,' she said. 'Even though people could simply unfriend someone with different opinions, and there were certainly those who did that, there were many relationships that were able to be maintained,' said Grevet. Through a combination of behaviors on Facebook like hiding, tuning out, logging off or avoiding certain conversations, people negotiated around those differences to stay connected.