The Language of Parasocial Influence and the Emergence of Extremism
Principal Investigator: Joshua B. Plotkin, University of Pennsylvania
Co-Principal Investigators: David Rand (MIT), Gordon Pennycook (Cornell University), Alexander Stewart (University of St. Andrews), Antonio Aréchar (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas)
Years of Award:2024-2029
Managing Service Agency: Office of Naval Research
Project Description:
Social media has become a dominant platform where influential individuals can reach vast audiences and establish strong parasocial relationships. The result is the growth of cultish formations centered around social media celebrities, often harboring extreme views – not unlike historical fringe groups, but with far more rapid formation and global reach. Fanatical groups and ideologies assembled online can rapidly transform into real-world coordinated action, destabilizing societies and threatening national security. Understanding and mitigating this threat demands the development of a new “cyber social science.”
This project seeks to develop a mechanistic understanding of how cultish formations emerge and foment extremism on social media, especially through the use of idiosyncratic vocabulary and signaling. We seek an understanding of this process that is sufficiently detailed and predictive to guide the design of interventions and mitigation.
Relevant Publications:
Michel-Mata S, Kawakatsu M, Sartini J, Kessinger T, Plotkin JB, Tarnita C. The evolution of private reputations in information-abundant landscapes. Nature (2024)
Stewart A, Arechar A, Rand D, Plotkin JB. The distorting effects of producer strategies: why engagement does not reveal consumer preferences for misinformation. PNAS 121 (2024)
Costello T, Pennycook G, Rand D. Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI. Science 385 (2024)
Arechar A, Allen J, Berinsky A, Cole R, Epstein Z, Garimella K, Gully A, Lu J, Ross R, Stagnaro M, Zhang Y, Pennycook G, Rand D. Understanding and combating online misinformation across 16 countries on six continents. Nature Human Behavior 7 (2023)
Stewart A, Plotkin JB, McCarty N. Inequality, identity, and partisanship: how redistribution can stem the tide of mass polarization. PNAS 118 (2022)
Pennycook G, Epstein Z, Mosleh M, Arechar A, Eckles D, Rand, D. Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation online. Nature 592 (2021)
Stewart A, Mosleh M, Diakonova M, Arechar A, Rand D, Plotkin JB. Information gerrymandering and undemocratic decisions. Nature 583 (2019)