What Makes People Join Conspiracy Communities?: Role of Social Factors in Conspiracy Engagement (2009.04527v2)

Abstract: 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.

• The paper shows that direct interactions with current conspiracists are the strongest predictor of joining conspiracy communities.
• It employs a quasi-experimental design using longitudinal data from 6 million Reddit posts and 30,000 matched user pairs to uncover informational and emotional coordination patterns.
• The findings suggest that negative social feedback and exclusion propel users toward echo chambers, informing more nuanced content moderation strategies.

Overview of Conspiracy Community Engagement Influences

The paper "What Makes People Join Conspiracy Communities?: Role of Social Factors in Conspiracy Engagement" investigates the multifaceted nature of conspiracy theory adoption within online communities, specifically focusing on the social factors influencing user engagement. By leveraging data collected from Reddit, the researchers aim to illuminate the socially mediated nature of conspiratorial engagement, a perspective often overlooked in favor of studying individual psychological predispositions.

Methodological Approach

The research employs a robust quasi-experimental design to analyze the interactions and contributions within Reddit's 56 identified conspiracy communities. The paper uses longitudinal data from Reddit, encompassing 6 million comments and posts across 56 subreddits related to conspiracy theories. A distinctive methodological feature of the paper is its focus on dyadic interactions — direct interactions between users — to determine the social precursors to joining conspiracy communities.

The researchers applied a rigorous approach to identify user groups, contrasting 30,000 future conspiracists (FC) with 30,000 matched control non-conspiracists (NC). This matching utilized criteria such as Reddit activity timelines and preferred subreddits to ensure robust comparison. They also accounted for the social contexts by identifying current conspiracists (CC) interacting within these communities, proposing that these interactions with CC may facilitate a user’s eventual engagement with conspiracy content.

Key Findings

The paper outlines several critical findings related to the social influences on conspiracy community engagement:

• Social Availability: The most significant predictor for joining conspiracy communities was the availability of social engagements with CCs, indicating that direct interactions and exposure to conspiratorial ideologies promote user integration into these communities.
• Information and Reputation Pressures: FC were found to engage in more reciprocal interactions in terms of information exchange and displayed tendencies to reply more to CC, pointing towards informational pressure as a conduit for joining such communities.
• Emotional and Group Identity Influence: FC expressed higher coordination in emotional tones and group identity with CC, indicating emotional snowballing and group polarization play substantial roles. The linguistic coordination, such as pronoun use indicative of group identity alignment, further underscores this aspect.
• Role of Marginalization: The paper found that users facing social sanctions, such as negative feedback and content moderation, are more likely to turn to conspiracy communities. This suggests that marginalization outside of conspiracy circles intensifies the user’s alienation and predisposes them to join these communities.

Implications for Theory and Practice

This research reaffirms the importance of socio-constructionist perspectives, suggesting that conspiracy theory adoption is not solely grounded in individual psychological profiles but is significantly mediated by social interactions and context. It advocates for rethinking content moderation approaches on platforms like Reddit. The results imply that overly aggressive moderation could exacerbate alienation, unintentionally pushing users towards more extreme echo chambers.

Furthermore, the paper demonstrates the strength of social influence in the fostering, sustaining, and expanding of conspiracy communities, indicating a need for deeper understanding of community dynamics and potential interventions that prioritize integration rather than exclusion. In essence, this paper expands the theoretical frameworks within social psychology of conspiracy theories and provides a quantitative backing that challenges traditional perspectives predominantly focused on individual predispositions.

Future Directions

The findings challenge researchers to further investigate how multiple social platform ecosystems influence conspiratorial engagements differently. Given the paper’s scope limited to Reddit, exploring other forms of social media where structural dynamics and user behaviors differ could offer additional insights. Subsequent research might explore interventions geared towards promoting critical engagement rather than simple moderation to mitigate unwarranted conspiracy community growth, potentially drawing from the socio-constructionist insights provided by this paper.