Efstratiou, Alexandros;
(2024)
Polarisation Dynamics and Emergent Information-Seeking Behaviours on Social Media.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Rising trends in sociopolitical polarisation are often attributed to the ever-increasing interactions taking place on social media. The combativeness characterising online communication negatively influences the quality of information circulating within these environments, as users may forgo veracity in favour of personal and group-level biases. This thesis contributes to our understanding of these issues through multi-pronged, large-scale quantitative examinations of intergroup and intragroup polarisation dynamics. First, we conduct an investigation of different \textit{intergroup} polarisation perspectives, uncovering how echo chamber engagement and hostility in intergroup interactions --- two phenomena heretofore presumed to be mutually exclusive --- may be interrelated and give rise to one another. Second, we explore how \textit{intragroup} perspectives, which remain largely under-studied, can offer researchers and practitioners new avenues for de-polarisation interventions. Specifically, we probe the role of users who are willing to engage with opposing views, and the degree to which they can promote informational diversity within their own communities. Third, we examine how these polarisation dynamics influence the propagation of misinformation in a networked setting, particularly focusing on how COVID-19 science is misrepresented through polarised discourse. Our work advances several new considerations for scholars and practitioners in the polarisation and online harms space more broadly. We provide a high-level mapping of the nature of intergroup interactions, considering both user isolation into echo chambers and the effects of this when they eventually break out of them. Moreover, we demonstrate that intragroup perspectives, which have received inadequate attention so far, are promising for designing de-polarisation interventions that can circumvent reactance. % designing affordances and interventions that can circumvent the psychological reactance often associated with interventions relying on external actors. We illustrate the importance of these insights by showing that polarised discourse online can be vastly misinformative, misrepresenting ground realities. Overall, our work offers new directions and actionable insights for researchers and practitioners in this area, contributing towards efforts to make online discourse more productive, veracious, and, ultimately, democratic.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Polarisation Dynamics and Emergent Information-Seeking Behaviours on Social Media |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2024. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Computer Science |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10199887 |
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