Communication strongly influences attitudes on climate change. Within sponsored communication, high spend and high reach advertising dominates. In the advertising ecosystem we can distinguish actors with adversarial stances: organizations with contrarian or advocacy communication goals, who direct the advertisement delivery algorithm to launch ads in different destinations by specifying targets and campaign objectives. We present an observational (N=275,632) and a controlled (N=650) study which collectively indicate that the advertising delivery algorithm could itself be an actor, asserting statistically significant influence over advertisement destinations, characterized by U.S. state, gender type, or age range. This algorithmic behaviour may not entirely be understood by the advertising platform (and its creators). These findings have implications for climate communications and misinformation research, revealing that targeting intentions are not always fulfilled as requested and that delivery itself could be manipulated.

翻译：传播活动深刻影响着人们对气候变化的态度。在付费传播领域，高支出、高覆盖率的广告占据主导地位。在广告生态系统中，我们可以区分出立场对立的参与方：持有反对或倡导传播目标的组织，通过指定投放目标和活动目的，引导广告投放算法在不同目的地启动广告。我们通过一项观察性研究（N=275,632）和一项对照实验（N=650）共同表明，广告投放算法本身可能扮演着参与方角色，对广告投放目的地（以美国州、性别类型或年龄段为特征）施加了统计上显著的影响。这种算法行为可能并未被广告平台（及其创造者）完全理解。这些发现对气候传播和错误信息研究具有重要意义，揭示了定向意图并非总能按请求实现，且投放过程本身可能受到操纵。