scholarly journals Homophily, Group Size, and the Diffusion of Political Information in Social Networks: Evidence from Twitter

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yosh Halberstam ◽  
Brian Knight
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Political Information

The Selective Communication of Political Information

2020 ◽  
pp. 194855062094236
Author(s):  
Pierce D. Ekstrom ◽  
Calvin K. Lai
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Political Information ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Ideological Differences ◽  
Share Information

People seek out and interpret political information in self-serving ways. In four experiments, we show that people are similarly self-serving in the political information they share with others. Participants learned about positive and negative effects of increasing the minimum wage (in Studies 1–3) or of banning assault weapons (Study 4). They then indicated how likely they would be to mention each effect to close others. Participants were more inclined to share information that was consistent with their political orientation than information that was not. This effect persisted even when participants believed the information, suggesting that selective communication is not just a reflection of motivated skepticism. We also observed ideological differences. Liberals were most biased with their political opponents, whereas conservatives were most biased with their political allies. This biased information sharing could distort the flow of political information through social networks in ways that exacerbate political polarization.

The Selective Communication of Political Information

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierce D. Ekstrom ◽  
Calvin K. Lai
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Political Information ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Ideological Differences ◽  
Share Information

People seek out and interpret political information in self-serving ways. In four experiments, we show that people are similarly self-serving in the political information they share with others. Participants learned about positive and negative effects of increasing the minimum wage (in Studies 1-3) or of banning assault weapons (Study 4). They then indicated how likely they would be to mention each effect to close others. Participants were more inclined to share information that was consistent with their political orientation than information that was not. This effect persisted even when participants believed the information, suggesting that selective communication is not just a reflection of motivated skepticism. We also observed ideological differences. Liberals were most biased with their political opponents, whereas conservatives were most biased with their political allies. This biased information sharing could distort the flow of political information through social networks in ways that exacerbate political polarization.

Political Information, Political Power, and People Power

2015 ◽  
pp. 2233-2258
Author(s):  
Anas Alahmed
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
New Media ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Information Age ◽  
Political Information ◽  
New Politics ◽  
Arab Politics ◽  
Global Movements ◽  
The Arab Spring

This chapter explores the concept of new media in the Arab world and how politics in the information age has changed Arab politics and moved citizens to the streets. However, the evolution of new media social networks and the cause of political information in particular during the revolution is not studied alone. In fact, the evolution of the Arab Spring and the effects of new media social networks are taken into account by exploring how politics in the information age has influenced Arab citizens and allowed them to use information for the greater good and established such a new social movement. This chapter takes the Arab Spring as a case study and an empirical example to understand the transnational protests and global movements, the concept of global media and global politics in the case of the Arab Spring, new media and new politics regarding the Arab Spring, and city and street and public sphere as people power in the information age. Finally, the chapter distinguishes between the new social movements through social networks and the roles of ICTs to aim revolution and whether such a revolution will erupt without new media social networks.

scholarly journals When Individuals Do Not Stop at the Skin

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Barnard
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Collective Consciousness ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Three Phases

This chapter examines contemporary hunter-gatherer societies in Africa and elsewhere in light of the social brain and the distributed mind hypotheses. One question asked is whether African hunter-gatherers offer the best model for societies at the dawn of symbolic culture, or whether societies elsewhere offer better models. The chapter argues for the former. Theoretical concepts touched on include sharing and exchange, universal kin classification, and the relation between group size and social networks. The chapter offers reinterpretations of classic anthropological notions such as Wissler's age-area hypothesis, Durkheim's collective consciousness and Lévi-Strauss's elementary structures of kinship. Finally, the chapter outlines a theory of the co-evolution of language and kinship through three phases (signifying, syntactic and symbolic) and the subsequent breakdown of the principles of the symbolic phase across much of the globe in Neolithic times.

Political Information, Political Power, and People Power

2014 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Anas Alahmed
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
New Media ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Information Age ◽  
Political Information ◽  
New Politics ◽  
Arab Politics ◽  
Global Movements ◽  
The Arab Spring

This chapter explores the concept of new media in the Arab world and how politics in the information age has changed Arab politics and moved citizens to the streets. However, the evolution of new media social networks and the cause of political information in particular during the revolution is not studied alone. In fact, the evolution of the Arab Spring and the effects of new media social networks are taken into account by exploring how politics in the information age has influenced Arab citizens and allowed them to use information for the greater good and established such a new social movement. This chapter takes the Arab Spring as a case study and an empirical example to understand the transnational protests and global movements, the concept of global media and global politics in the case of the Arab Spring, new media and new politics regarding the Arab Spring, and city and street and public sphere as people power in the information age. Finally, the chapter distinguishes between the new social movements through social networks and the roles of ICTs to aim revolution and whether such a revolution will erupt without new media social networks.

scholarly journals Primate social group sizes exhibit a regular scaling pattern with natural attractors

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 20170490 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. I. M. Dunbar ◽  
Padraig Mac Carron ◽  
Susanne Shultz
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Species Group ◽  
Evolutionary Change ◽  
Selection Pressures ◽  
Environmental Selection ◽  
Rapid Evolutionary Change

Primate groups vary considerably in size across species. Nonetheless, the distribution of mean species group size has a regular scaling pattern with preferred sizes approximating 2.5, 5, 15, 30 and 50 individuals (although strepsirrhines lack the latter two), with a scaling ratio of approximately 2.5 similar to that observed in human social networks. These clusters appear to form distinct social grades that are associated with rapid evolutionary change, presumably in response to intense environmental selection pressures. These findings may have wider implications for other highly social mammal taxa.

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