Norm propagation in online communities: structural, temporal, and community analysis

Raed Alharbi, Youval Kashuv, Yan Wang, Wenwen Dou, My T. Thai

Abstract: Understanding descriptive positive and negative norms, such as their propagation speed, is crucial for shaping individuals’ behaviors towards public health guidelines and designing successful promotion campaigns to encourage positive norms. Unfortunately, conducting in-depth analyses related to community characteristics and the diffusion of descriptive norms is complex and context-dependent, influenced by variables across time such as what the norms are and the structure of the community it belongs to. To address this gap, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of norm propagation in online communities, such as macro and micro analyses, structural and temporal analyses, and activity-based norm life cycle analyses. We also investigate the community’s propagation networks to understand the overlapping influencers. Through these analyses, we aim to reveal the dynamics of norm diffusion, understand influence patterns within communities, and identify influential users and clusters contributing to norm adoption and propagation. Our finding shows that negative norms display a shorter life cycle in contrast to positive norms. Additionally, positive norms demonstrate a longer life cycle, while negative norms display a comparatively shorter duration. We also find that engagement near the norm’s disappearance is less frequent in negative norms compared to positive norms, where engagement persists.