What makes you you? The groups you belong to, the roles you play, the values you hold: these identities shape what you believe and who you trust. They also shape your biases. Social media algorithms are designed to amplify certain identities over others, quietly narrowing what feels true. This exercise makes that structure visible — so you can recognize your biases, become more resilient to misinformation, and engage more thoughtfully in our information ecosystem.
We all identify with certain groups — political, professional, religious, geographical, interest-based. Which ones feel true to you? Select at least three from the categories below, or add your own. Focus on identities that feel genuinely important to you — ones that shape how you see the world.
Now, rate how important each identity is to you: how central does it feel to your sense of self? Your answers will determine how large each identity appears on your map — larger circles mean that identity matters more to you.
After you select a platform, click or tap it to choose which identities appear most on that feed — and how strongly it amplifies them.
Drag the circles to show how much your identities overlap in real life. The more two identities share communities, values, and information sources, the more you should overlap them.
Use the buttons below to rate how much each identity overlaps with your others. Think about shared communities, values, and information sources — the more two identities have in common, the higher the overlap.
Percentages are estimates for reflection only.
This exercise is grounded in research on social identity complexity — the degree to which your group memberships overlap. When your identities cluster together, sharing the same communities, values, and information sources, your identity map is less complex. When they are more distinct, your map is more complex. Research suggests that people with more complex identity maps tend to show greater tolerance toward outgroups and reduced ingroup bias. This exercise applies that insight to how we consume information — the more our identities cluster together, the more we may unconsciously favor information that confirms them.
Social media adds another layer: algorithms actively amplify certain identities, quietly shaping which version of you gets reinforced online. Your susceptibility to misinformation isn't only about who you are — it's about which version of yourself your feeds constantly reflect back to you.