Pathways to conspiracy: The social and linguistic precursors of involvement in Reddit's conspiracy theory forum.

ABSTRACT: Many individuals who engage with conspiracy theories come to do so through a combination of individual and social factors. The interaction between these factors is challenging to study using traditional experimental designs. Reddit.com is a large connected set of online discussion forums, including one (r/conspiracy) devoted to wide-ranging discussion of conspiracy theories. The availability of large datasets of user comments from Reddit give a unique opportunity to observe human behavior in social spaces and at scale. Using a retrospective case control study design, we analyzed how Reddit users who would go on to engage with a conspiracy-related forum differed from other users in the language they use, differences in the social environments where they posted, and potential interactions be

SUBMITTER: Klein C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6860422 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature