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What Makes People Join Conspiracy Communities?: Role of Social Factors in Conspiracy Engagement

Authors:

Tanushree MitraAuthors Info & Claims

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 4, Issue CSCW3

Article No.: 223, Pages 1 - 30

https://doi.org/10.1145/3432922

Published: 05 January 2021 Publication History

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) and30K matched non-conspiracists?(NC). We then provide empirical evidence of the 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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Cited By

Batzdorfer V(2024)Conspiracy Narratives on Voat: A Longitudinal Analysis of Cognitive Activation and Evolutionary Psychology FeaturesProceedings of the 16th ACM Web Science Conference10.1145/3614419.3644019(42-47)Online publication date: 21-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3614419.3644019
Efstratiou AChua TNgo CKa-Wei Lee RKumar RLauw H(2024)Deliberate Exposure to Opposing Views and Its Association with Behavior and Rewards on Political CommunitiesProceedings of the ACM Web Conference 202410.1145/3589334.3645375(2347-2358)Online publication date: 13-May-2024
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Korenčić DChulvi BCasals XToselli ATaulé MRosso P(2024)What distinguishes conspiracy from critical narratives? A computational analysis of oppositional discourseExpert Systems10.1111/exsy.1367141:11Online publication date: 9-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1111/exsy.13671
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Index Terms

What Makes People Join Conspiracy Communities?: Role of Social Factors in Conspiracy Engagement
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
    1. Collaborative and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms
      1. Social media
    2. Empirical studies in collaborative and social computing

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cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction Volume 4, Issue CSCW3

CSCW

December 2020

1825 pages

EISSN:2573-0142

DOI:10.1145/3446568

Editor:
Jeff Nichols
Apple Inc., United States

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Copyright © 2021 ACM.

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Published: 05 January 2021

Published in PACMHCI Volume 4, Issue CSCW3

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Cited By

Batzdorfer V(2024)Conspiracy Narratives on Voat: A Longitudinal Analysis of Cognitive Activation and Evolutionary Psychology FeaturesProceedings of the 16th ACM Web Science Conference10.1145/3614419.3644019(42-47)Online publication date: 21-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3614419.3644019
Efstratiou AChua TNgo CKa-Wei Lee RKumar RLauw H(2024)Deliberate Exposure to Opposing Views and Its Association with Behavior and Rewards on Political CommunitiesProceedings of the ACM Web Conference 202410.1145/3589334.3645375(2347-2358)Online publication date: 13-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3589334.3645375
Korenčić DChulvi BCasals XToselli ATaulé MRosso P(2024)What distinguishes conspiracy from critical narratives? A computational analysis of oppositional discourseExpert Systems10.1111/exsy.1367141:11Online publication date: 9-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1111/exsy.13671
Di Marco NCinelli MAlipour SQuattrociocchi W(2024)Users Volatility on Reddit and VoatIEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems10.1109/TCSS.2024.337931811:5(5871-5879)Online publication date: Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSS.2024.3379318
Jolley DShepherd LMaughan A(2024)The fear factor: examining the impact of fear on vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefsPsychology & Health10.1080/08870446.2024.2381235(1-20)Online publication date: 25-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2024.2381235
Kunst JGundersen AKrysińska IPiasecki JWójtowicz TRygula Rvan der Linden SMorzy M(2024)Leveraging artificial intelligence to identify the psychological factors associated with conspiracy theory beliefs onlineNature Communications10.1038/s41467-024-51740-915:1Online publication date: 29-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51740-9
Bierwiaczonek KFluit Svon Soest THornsey MKunst J(2024)Loneliness trajectories over three decades are associated with conspiracist worldviews in midlifeNature Communications10.1038/s41467-024-47113-x15:1Online publication date: 29-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47113-x
Jovanović VLazić M(2023)Vaccination Attitudes Examination (VAX) Scale: a Bifactor-ESEM approach in a youth sample (15–24 years)BMC Psychology10.1186/s40359-023-01388-911:1Online publication date: 23-Oct-2023
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Li BJi DFu MTan CChong ALim E(2023)Unveiling the formation of conspiracy theory on social media: A discourse analysisJournal of Information Technology10.1177/0268396223117592339:3(392-416)Online publication date: 2-Jun-2023
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Engel KPhadke SMitra T(2023)Learning from the Ex-Believers: Individuals' Journeys In and Out of Conspiracy Theories OnlineProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36100767:CSCW2(1-37)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
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