3 ms·

A non trivial part of social media is the social component, where folks build their own networks according to all sorts of graphs and in many instances using re

A non trivial part of social media is the social component, where folks build their own networks according to all sorts of graphs and in many instances using real world identities to do that. Do you have a sense as to the impact that the absence of that has on using something like this? Sure, we can fairly accurately replicate the mechanics of a social network, but the decision making in it surely is influenced by the difference in the social graph/tie to real identity/etc.

sothatsit 4y ago
Thanks for the comment! You are right that social graphs are important. Our tool does not support them explicitly, as it is designed for studies that can take place over one session (e.g., minutes to hours), not studies over longer periods. However, we hypothesise that participants will still form associations with the identities that are included within studies. These identities can all be selected by the researchers, and they could choose to use real identities. Our tool is better for research such as: * Do followers influence perceived credibility? * Does the number of likes influence whether someone will like a post? * Does the emotion in posts influence participant’s belief in misinformation? (This is a bit more complicated to test, but can be done) More complex research regarding social networks would likely require a specialised system. This is aimed for a more general audience, who would otherwise use questionnaires for many of these questions. I hope that helps :)
- ChicagoBoy11 4y ago
  Thank you for the reply, it does! I do quite a bit of work with young people around social media and behavior, so I'm just noodling ways where I think this may be useful in setting up scenarios for them! Thanks so much for all the work!!!
  - sothatsit 4y ago
    I didn’t even think about using it for education! If you end up making use of it, I’d love to hear what you did and how it went.

sothatsit 4y ago

Thanks for the comment! You are right that social graphs are important. Our tool does not support them explicitly, as it is designed for studies that can take place over one session (e.g., minutes to hours), not studies over longer periods. However, we hypothesise that participants will still form associations with the identities that are included within studies. These identities can all be selected by the researchers, and they could choose to use real identities. Our tool is better for research such as: * Do followers influence perceived credibility? * Does the number of likes influence whether someone will like a post? * Does the emotion in posts influence participant’s belief in misinformation? (This is a bit more complicated to test, but can be done) More complex research regarding social networks would likely require a specialised system. This is aimed for a more general audience, who would otherwise use questionnaires for many of these questions. I hope that helps :)

ChicagoBoy11 4y ago
Thank you for the reply, it does! I do quite a bit of work with young people around social media and behavior, so I'm just noodling ways where I think this may be useful in setting up scenarios for them! Thanks so much for all the work!!!
- sothatsit 4y ago
  I didn’t even think about using it for education! If you end up making use of it, I’d love to hear what you did and how it went.