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Preprint
What Makes People Join Conspiracy Communities?: Role of Social Factors in Conspiracy Engagement
arXiv (Cornell University)
09 Sep 2020
Abstract
Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing 2020 Widespread conspiracy theories, like those motivating anti-vaccination
attitudes or climate change denial, propel collective action and bear
society-wide consequences. Yet, empirical research has largely studied
conspiracy theory adoption as an individual pursuit, rather than as a socially
mediated process. What makes users join communities endorsing and spreading
conspiracy theories? We leverage longitudinal data from 56 conspiracy
communities on Reddit to compare individual and social factors determining
which users join the communities. Using a quasi-experimental approach, we first
identify 30K future conspiracists-(FC) and 30K matched non-conspiracists-(NC).
We then provide empirical evidence of importance of social factors across six
dimensions relative to the individual factors by analyzing 6 million Reddit
comments and posts. Specifically in social factors, we find that dyadic
interactions with members of the conspiracy communities and marginalization
outside of the conspiracy communities, are the most important social precursors
to conspiracy joining-even outperforming individual factor baselines. Our
results offer quantitative backing to understand social processes and echo
chamber effects in conspiratorial engagement, with important implications for
democratic institutions and online communities.
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Details
- Title
- What Makes People Join Conspiracy Communities?: Role of Social Factors in Conspiracy Engagement
- Creators
- Shruti PhadkeMattia SamoryTanushree Mitra
- Publication Details
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Resource Type
- Preprint
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Information Science (Informatics)
- Other Identifier
- 991021985095204721