No echo in the chambers of political interactions on Reddit

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing). May combine two claims.

Reddit users are not representative of the US population and have strong socio-demographic biases.

“Reddit users are not representative of the US population, and instead have strong socio-demographic biases.”

• cites [44] Duggan, M. & Smith, A. 6% of online adults are reddit users. Pew Internet Am. Life Project 3, 1–10 (2013).Not checked — no full text of the source
• cites [45] Finlay, C. Age and gender in reddit commenting and success. J. Inf. Sci. Theory Pract. 2, 18–28. https://doi.org/10.1633/JISTaP.2014.2.3.2 (2014). sourcePartly supported

  The Results (§5) describe the surveyed r/atheism respondents as predominantly young and male, supporting a demographic skew in that group. But the survey was confined to one subreddit (§4), and the paper does not compare its respondents with the US population or establish that the findings apply to Reddit users generally. (LLM, conf=0.87)

  Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
• cites [46] Singer, P., Flöck, F., Meinhart, C., Zeitfogel, E. & Strohmaier, M. Evolution of reddit: From the front page of the internet to a self-referential community? In Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on World Wide Web, 517–522, https://doi.org/10.1145/2567948.2576943 (New York, NY, USA, 2014). sourceNot checked — no full text of the source

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing). May combine two claims.

Dubois and Blank found that many users check news sources different from their usual ones, often offline, arguing against generalizing single-media studies to describe the complexity of a high-choice multiple media environment.

“The authors found that many users check news sources different from their usual ones, often offline. They thus argue against generalizing single-media studies to describe the complexity of a high-choice multiple media environment.”

• cites [20] Dubois, E. & Blank, G. The echo chamber is overstated: The moderating effect of political interest and diverse media. Inf. Commun. Soc. 21, 729–745 (2018). sourcePartly supported

  The Variables and measurement section asks respondents whether they check a news source different from their usual one and whether they confirm information through a major offline news medium. The Broader implications section argues that single-medium studies cannot capture how people use other online and offline media. The passages found do not establish that many respondents checked different sources or that they often did so offline. (LLM, conf=0.77)

  Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

Similar results are known for other communities (e.g., the Brexit leave campaign).

“Similar results are known for other communities (for instance, the Brexit leave campaign40).”

• cites [40] Bastos, M., Mercea, D. & Baronchelli, A. The geographic embedding of online echo chambers: Evidence from the brexit campaign. PLoS One 13, 20 (2018). sourceSupported

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing). May combine two claims.

Garimella et al. found that users with different opinions tend not to follow each other, but only when the topic is controversial.

“they confirm the presence of echo chambers (i.e., users with different opinions tend not to follow each other), but only when the topic is controversial.”

• cites [9] Garimella, K., De Francisci Morales, G., Gionis, A. & Mathioudakis, M. Quantifying controversy on social media. TSC ACM Trans. Soc. Comput. 1, 3 (2018). sourcePartly supported

  The ‘Follow graph’ section expects users to agree more often with people they follow and predicts well-separated groups for controversial topics. Section 5 reports such separation in follow graphs, and Section 8.1 finds higher median controversy scores for controversial than non-controversial topics. These findings support the association, but do not establish the claim’s ‘only when’ condition: the paper does not show that cross-opinion following is avoided exclusively for controversial topics. (LLM, conf=0.84)

  Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

Reddit users are more likely to be young males.

“Reddit users are more likely to be young males44”

• cites [44] Duggan, M. & Smith, A. 6% of online adults are reddit users. Pew Internet Am. Life Project 3, 1–10 (2013).Not checked — no full text of the source
• cites [45] Finlay, C. Age and gender in reddit commenting and success. J. Inf. Sci. Theory Pract. 2, 18–28. https://doi.org/10.1633/JISTaP.2014.2.3.2 (2014). sourcePartly supported

  The Results section describes the average surveyed r/atheism user as a male in his late teens to mid-20s. The Methodology section says the data came from an informal survey in that subreddit, so the finding does not establish the demographics of Reddit users generally. (LLM, conf=0.88)

  Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing). May combine two claims.

Face-to-face interactions within families decrease when there is political disagreement, which is exacerbated by massive political ads campaigns in swing states.

“face-to-face interactions within families decrease when there is political disagreement, which is exacerbated by massive political ads campaigns in swing states41.”

• cites [41] Chen, M. K. & Rohla, R. The effect of partisanship and political advertising on close family ties. Science 360, 1020–1024 (2018). sourcePartly supported

  The paper reports shorter cross-partisan Thanksgiving dinners (p. 1) and a larger reduction in heavily advertised markets, including swing-state markets (p. 4). The claim generalizes from Thanksgiving gatherings to family interactions broadly and presents advertising as the cause, whereas the paper says other campaign activities may also have contributed (p. 4). (LLM, conf=0.83)

  Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

May combine two claims.

Comments by Clinton supporters have much larger scores on average, while the scores of Trump supporters span a larger interval of values.

“comments by Clinton supporters have much larger scores on average, while the scores of Trump supporters span a larger interval of values.”

May combine two claims.

Clinton supporters tend to interact more with Trump supporters (72% of interactions) than Trump supporters themselves within the community (62%).

“Clinton supporters tend to interact more with Trump supporters (72% of interactions) than Trump supporters themselves within the community (62%).”

May combine two claims.

The method identifies 10,240 users as Clinton supporters and 110,806 users as Trump supporters.

“Our method identifies 10,240 users as Clinton supporters and 110,806 users as Trump supporters.”

May combine two claims.

Users show assortative behavior for activity: high-activity users tend to interact with similarly active users, and low-activity users with low-activity users.

“users show assortative behavior for activity”

• Also stated in: § Deviation of conditional and joint probabilities · plain

  “Thus, we observe that users show an assortative behavior with respect to activity, i.e., user with high activity tend to interact with similarly-active users, and the same for users with low activity.”

May combine two claims.

The Politics network is characterized by asymmetry between the two political groups: Clinton supporters interact with Trump supporters more than the other way around, with a 6.2% increase with respect to a random null model on one side and 3.3% on the other.

“The Politics network is characterized by an asymmetry between the two political groups: Clinton supporters interact with Trump supporters more than the other way around, with a 6.2% increase with respect to a random null model on one side and 3.3% on the other.”

• AssumptionThe authors state this as an assumption: The null model assumes that interactions are unaffected by the political leaning of users.

May combine two claims.

The activity distribution of Trump supporters decays more rapidly than for Clinton supporters, indicating a propensity to engage in a larger number of interactions from Clinton supporters.

“The activity distribution of Trump supporters decays more rapidly than for the Clinton ones, thus indicating a propensity to engage in a larger number of interactions from Clinton supporters.”

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

State information is slightly unbalanced: 36% for Trump supporters and 43% for Clinton supporters.

“State information is slightly unbalanced (36% for Trump’s supporters, 43% for Clinton’s).”

May combine two claims.

Users show disassortative, asymmetric behavior for popularity: low-score users tend to interact with high-score users, and the reverse is slightly less frequent.

“and disassortative, asymmetric behavior for popularity.”

• Also stated in: § Deviation of conditional and joint probabilities · plain

  “Users show a disassortative, slightly asymmetric behavior with respect to scores: users with low score tend to interact with users with high score, viceversa is less slightly frequent.”

May combine two claims.

Users with a higher average score are more likely both to initiate and receive interactions.

“users with a higher average score are more likely both to initiate and receive interactions.”

May combine two claims.

The likelihood of interactions does not seem to be correlated with income inequality or education level.

“the likelihood of interactions does not seem to be correlated with income inequality or education level.”

May combine two claims.

There is significant homophily among users living in the same US state; interactions between users in the same state are significantly more likely than random chance.

“There is in fact a significant () homophily among users living in the same US state.”

• Also stated in: § Discussion · plain

  “interactions between users located in the same state are significantly more likely than random chance.”

May combine two claims.

Swing states are less likely to show cross-party interactions but foster more homophilic interactions.

“We find swing states to be less likely to show cross-party interactions, but to foster more homophilic interactions ().”

The quote only partly states this claim.

In our data, the same measure used by Conover et al. gives opposite results.

“In our data, the same measure gives opposite results.”

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S4 (based).

There is no need to control for activity variables because the null model already takes that aspect into account.

“There is no need to control for activity variables as our null model already takes that aspect into account, as explained next.”

• AssumptionThe authors state this as an assumption: The null model assumes that interactions are unaffected by the political leaning of users.

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

Reddit was a fundamental platform for the success of Donald Trump's political campaign.

“It was a fundamental platform for the success of Donald Trump’s political campaign23.”

• cites [23] Karpf, D. Digital politics after trump. Ann. Int. Commun. Assoc. 41, 198–207 (2017). sourceNot checked — no full text of the source

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing). May combine two claims.

Polarization along party lines in the United States is on the rise, and the 2016 elections deepened the divide.

“Polarization along party lines in the United States is on the rise2, and 2016 elections have deepen the divide3.”

• cites [2] Baldassarri, D. & Gelman, A. Partisans without constraint: Political polarization and trends in American public opinion. Am. J. Sociol. 114, 408–446 (2008). sourceNot checked — no full text of the source
• cites [3] Jacobson, G. C. Polarization, gridlock, and presidential campaign politics in 2016. Ann. Am. Acad. Polit. Soc. Sci. 667, 226–246 (2016). sourceNot checked — no full text of the source

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S4 (based).

This liberal bias in the general opinion of r/politics does not seem to discourage Trump supporters from commenting in large numbers.

“This liberal bias in the general opinion of r/politics, however, does not seem to discourage Trump supporters from commenting in large numbers.”

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing), S4 (based).

The set of users of interest is not representative of r/politics users.

“Our set of users of interest is not a representative of r/politics users.”

May combine two claims.

The effects observed for political interactions across communities are not confounded by average score, fraction of positively scored comments, or both.

“This result confirms that the effects we observe for political interactions across communities are not confounded by these other user characteristics.”

May combine two claims.

The sampling procedure for negative links only changes the intercept coefficient and does not affect the interpretation of the important parts of the model.

“This sampling procedure only changes the value of the intercept coefficient, which is not of interest, and does not affect the interpretation of the important parts of the model (the coefficients of the community variables under study).”

• AssumptionThe authors state this as an assumption: The null model assumes that interactions are unaffected by the political leaning of users.

May combine two claims.

Average score can be interpreted as a proxy measure for visibility: authors able to attract a large number of upvotes are also more prolific, and they also attract more comments, which explains the larger-than-one ratios.

“We can interpret average score as a proxy measure for visibility: authors able to attract a large number of upvotes are also more prolific, and they also attract more comments, which explains the larger-than-one ratios.”

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

The political leaning and general interests of Reddit users may differ from those of the general population.

“it has been shown that the political leaning and general interests of Reddit users may differ from those of the general population46.”

• cites [46] Singer, P., Flöck, F., Meinhart, C., Zeitfogel, E. & Strohmaier, M. Evolution of reddit: From the front page of the internet to a self-referential community? In Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on World Wide Web, 517–522, https://doi.org/10.1145/2567948.2576943 (New York, NY, USA, 2014). sourceNot checked — no full text of the source

Classified as probably not a substantial claim. May combine two claims.

Bakshy et al. found homophily in the social network, which is the main cause of decrease of exposure to ideologically cross-cutting content (compared to the effect of the news feed algorithm).

“Their findings show the presence of homophily in the social network, which is also the main cause of decrease of exposure to ideologically cross-cutting content (compared to the effect of the news feed algorithm).”

• cites [25] Bakshy, E., Messing, S. & Adamic, L. A. Exposure to ideologically diverse news and opinion on facebook. Science 348, 1130–1132 (2015). sourceNot checked — no full text of the source

Classified as probably not a substantial claim. May combine two claims.

Mutz argued that conflicts within one's own social environment can produce ambivalence, which can in turn reduce the intensity of support for one's side.

“Mutz26 arguing that conflicts within one’s own social environment can produce ambivalence, which can in turn reduce the intensity of support for one’s side.”

• cites [26] Mutz, D. C. The consequences of cross-cutting networks for political participation. Am. J. Polit. Sci. 838–855, 20 (2002). sourceNot checked — no full text of the source

Classified as probably not a substantial claim. May combine two claims.

Conover et al. found that users are more likely to interact with people with whom they agree, with odds ratios of 1.2-1.3 for mentions and 1.7-2.3 for retweets, concluding that the retweet network is highly polarized.

“they find that users are more likely to interact people with whom they agree, with an odds ratio of 1.2–1.3 for mentions and 1.7–2.3 for retweets, thus concluding that the retweet network is highly polarized.”

• cites [4] Conover, M. D. et al. Political polarization on twitter. In Fifth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (2011). sourceNot checked — no full text of the source

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

Exposure to cross-cutting political views is associated with diminished political participation.

“exposure to cross-cutting political views is associated with diminished political participation25–27.”

• cites [25] Bakshy, E., Messing, S. & Adamic, L. A. Exposure to ideologically diverse news and opinion on facebook. Science 348, 1130–1132 (2015). sourceNot checked — no full text of the source
• cites [26] Mutz, D. C. The consequences of cross-cutting networks for political participation. Am. J. Polit. Sci. 838–855, 20 (2002). sourceNot checked — no full text of the source
• cites [27] Huckfeldt, R., Mendez, J. M. & Osborn, T. Disagreement, ambivalence, and engagement: The political consequences of heterogeneous networks. Polit. Psychol. 25, 65–95 (2004). sourceNot checked — no full text of the source

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing). May combine two claims.

The state-level aggregation is coarse-grained and does not take into consideration differences between areas within the same state (e.g., urban vs rural).

“the state-level aggregation is coarse-grained, and does not take into consideration differences between areas within the same state (e.g., urban vs rural).”

Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

Barberá et al. found that exchange of information on some controversial topics on Twitter starts and persists as a national conversation participated by different political sides, before sliding into an echo-chamber picture.

“The authors of Ref.43 found that the exchange of information with respect to some controversial topics on Twitter starts and persists as a national conversation participated by different political sides, before sliding into an echo-chamber picture.”

• cites [43] Barberá, P., Jost, J. T., Nagler, J., Tucker, J. A. & Bonneau, R. Tweeting from left to right: Is online political communication more than an echo chamber?. Psychol. Sci. 26, 1531–1542 (2015). sourceNot checked — no full text of the source

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S1 (asserted), S3 (load-bearing).

People perceive to encounter more disagreement in online than in offline interactions.

“Reportedly, people perceive to encounter more disagreement in online than in offline interactions42.”

• cites [42] Vaccari, C. How prevalent are filter bubbles and echo chambers on social media? Not as much as conventional wisdom has it (2018).Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

Reddit is much more popular in urban rather than rural areas.

“Reddit is much more popular in urban rather than rural areas44.”

• cites [44] Duggan, M. & Smith, A. 6% of online adults are reddit users. Pew Internet Am. Life Project 3, 1–10 (2013).Not checked — no full text of the source