polarizationlab (@polarizationlab) header
polarizationlab (@polarizationlab) profile picture

The Polarization Lab at Duke brings together the tools of social science and data science to counter political tribalism on social media.

Durham, NC
Joined September 2018
polarizationlab retweeted
I’ll be sharing my favorite shots of the Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science from around the world each day on Insta #sicss2022 #datascience #computationalsocialscience instagram.com/p/CftrD0Hu5af/…
1
4
15
polarizationlab retweeted
Showing off my #freshink for #SICSS2022 …. God I love this conference/community. Learn more at sicss.io/
4
2
70
polarizationlab retweeted
This is some of the best public writing I've seen on the impact of social media on politics; it captures both the complexity of the problem *as well as* the reality that crises can't wait for randomized controlled trials-- one of many things the great @JonHaidt has taught me.
What do we really know about social media? @chris_bail, author of Breaking the Social Media Prism, speaks with Gideon Lewis-Kraus for @NewYorker about the impacts of social media platforms, echo chambers, foreign misinformation & algorithms: hubs.ly/Q01cNwcB0
2
14
75
polarizationlab retweeted
1/ Before you share this, please learn about how the bot detection used works: it counts people as bots if they don’t post messages regularly to Twitter BUT most Twitter users are lurkers who do not post… nypost.com/2022/05/17/half-o…
4
3
1
17
polarizationlab retweeted
1/ How do fringe ideas become mainstream? In 2015, I wrote a book about this subject. A lot has changed, but I still think what I learned can help us answer this question today-TLDR, we need to map the information ecosystem, & both the right *and* the left help fringe ideas grow.
Replying to @BarackObama
We need to repudiate in the strongest terms the politicians and media figures who — whether for political gain or to boost ratings — have used their platforms to promote and normalize “replacement theory” and other starkly racist, anti-Semitic, and nativist conspiracy theories.
2
11
1
48
polarizationlab retweeted
Is @elonmusk a bot? One of *the* most advanced algorithms for bot detection thinks so, which illustrates just how difficult it might be to clean up this bird place. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ try the tool: botometer.osome.iu.edu/ and technical references here: botometer.osome.iu.edu/publi…
12
69
22
293
polarizationlab retweeted
1/n People often ask me how to regulate social media…the answer is actually pretty simple:
1
4
1
21
polarizationlab retweeted
What is my biggest concern about the new U.S. census results? We continue to under-produce Jedi knights compared to the United Kingdom.
2
8
1
64
Where have all the moderates gone? They’re still out there, but seldom heard on social media. On our latest episode, @DukeSanford prof and polarization expert @chris_bail shares insight into the nature of this endangered species online: bit.ly/3qTc08x
1
4
2
4
polarizationlab retweeted
How can we stop Facebook’s decision about Trump from launching a new round of partisan warfare on social media? In this piece for CNN, I introduce new apps, bots, and tools that social media users can use to fight political tribalism from the bottom up. cnn.com/2021/05/04/opinions/…
6
26
4
52
Fresh Off the Pod Press- my fascinating conversation w @chris_bail about his new book, Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing thecycle.substack.com/p/thro…
5
12
Existing social media platforms are politically dysfunctional because they were never supposed to be otherwise... No one's really tried to build a platform that would actively and intentionally promote the practice of democracy. Me on new @chris_bail book: salon.com/2021/04/10/why-is-…
1
3
2
10
polarizationlab retweeted
After studying social media users and polarization for more than a decade, I think I finally found the biggest troll on the internet. tldr: he's a middle aged man that lives with his mom. Meet the trolls who walk among us, and learn what their behavior means for everyone else:
2
7
1
66
polarizationlab retweeted
1/ Do you feel hopeless about political polarization on social media? Introducing a new suite of apps, bots, and other tools that you can use to make this place less polarizing from our Duke Polarization Lab: polarizationlab.com/our-tool…
8
103
27
237
polarizationlab retweeted
1/8 Did you know that Twitter is experimenting with new features that would expose its users to opposing political views? In this @nytimes piece, I describe why this idea could backfire based upon a large online experiment recently conducted by my lab: nyti.ms/2Nu45gL
29
296
84
532