Group Processes Underlying Deviance in Online Public Spaces

这个项目研究了数字平台上的偏差背后的社会过程。新形式的数字通信从根本上改变了公共对话的舞台和机制。在社交媒体上广泛采用投票系统和用户管理的社区可以创建团体流程，使社会上不可接受的想法和行为正常化并得到保护。这一重大转变需要一个具有新的理论范围和经验相关性的越轨行为研究议程。利用语言学和社会学理论以及计算方法，该项目将增强我们对在线异常行为和极端主义的机制和决定因素的了解。 调查结果将通过揭示影响在线公共空间行为的治理决策来服务于公共利益。来自一个大型在线信息共享和讨论网站的帖子和评论的完整对话数据库将用于调查数字平台上的分歧和极化的经验之谜。主要的理论目的是了解一个过渡到越轨的意识形态或行为的社区中，不越轨是规范和积极执行的成员。核心假设是，越轨社区创造本地化的对话和激励结构，在这种结构中，越轨语言代码和极端行为的文化意义可以形成，共享和实施。该项目将通过将微观层面的对话动态与宏观层面的生态竞争联系起来，探索转型的条件和过程。本文将探讨两个具体的问题：1）是什么样的会话动力导致了语言惯例、规范标准和文化对越轨行为的解释的转变？2)社区间的互动和排斥是如何导致群体偏离和两极分化的？通过同时调整对话层面和生态层面的透镜，该项目旨在提供一套中档理论，解释在线公共空间中越轨行为（在某些情况下是极端行为）的出现和固化。 该奖项由社会学、安全和值得信赖的网络空间以及人类网络和数据科学研究计划支持。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project examines social processes underlying deviance on digital platforms. New forms of digital communication have fundamentally shifted the arenas and mechanics of public conversations. Widespread adoption of voting systems and user-managed communities on social media can create group processes that normalize and protect societally unacceptable ideas and behaviors. This grand shift begs for a research agenda on deviance with a new theoretical scope and empirical relevance. Drawing on linguistic and sociological theory and computational methods, the project will enhance our knowledge of the mechanisms and determinants of online deviant behavior and extremism. Findings will serve the public interest by shedding light on governance decisions that affect behavior in online public spaces. A complete conversation database of posts and comments from a large online information-sharing and discussion website will be used to investigate the empirical puzzle of divergence and polarization on digital platforms. The main theoretical aim is to understand a transition to deviant ideologies or behaviors within communities in which non-deviance is the norm and actively enforced by members. The central hypothesis is that deviant communities create localized conversations and incentive structures in which cultural meanings of deviant linguistic codes and extremist behaviors can be formed, shared, and enforced. The project will explore the conditions and processes of the transition by connecting micro-level conversation dynamics with macro-level ecological competition. Two specific questions will be addressed: 1) What conversational dynamics underlie the shifts in linguistic conventions, normative standards, and cultural interpretations of deviance? 2) How do inter-community interaction and exclusion contribute to group deviation and polarization? By simultaneously adjusting the lens at the conversational level and ecological level, the project aims to offer a set of middle-range theories explaining the emergence and solidification of deviant, and in certain cases extremist, behavior in online public spaces. This award is supported by the Sociology, Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace, and Human Networks and Data Science – Research Programs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.