[SamBam]

I'm interested in this as well. I've seen other people's anecdotal evidence, with screenshotted examples, and I've noticed it myself, but I'd love a real study.

If Twitter prioritizes "engagement" then it seems natural that they'd put a response that is more likely to garner a response from you first. You're more engaged if you're writing back an angry refutation of how wrong the first person is, than if you're just hitting "like" on the first person that agrees with you.

But this kind of engagement feels negative to me in the long run. I have certainly gotten myself addicted to political Twitter, and at the same time never feel happy with myself for engaging.

That said, it's also a powerful force: I have two Twitter accounts, one that engages in political discussions, which often leaves me annoyed at the world, and one that just follows makers and artists and things that make me happy. But guess which one I check more often...