2024/02/28 by Jack Tacchi, Chiara Boldrini, Tacchi, Jack +5 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Impact of Technology on Adolescents #Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence #Social and Information Networks (cs.SI)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2402.18235
openalex publication_date 2024/02/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Humans are known to structure social relationships according to certain patterns, such as the Ego Network Model (ENM). These patterns result from our innate cognitive limits and can therefore be observed in the vast majority of large human social groups. Until recently, the main focus of research was the structural characteristics of this model. The main aim of this paper is to complement previous findings with systematic and data-driven analyses on the positive and negative sentiments of social relationships, across different cultures, communities and topics of discussion. A total of 26 datasets were collected for this work. It was found that contrary to previous findings, the influence of culture is not easily ``overwhelmed'' by that of the topic of discussion. However, more specific and polarising topics do lead to noticeable increases in negativity across all cultures. These negativities also appear to be stable across the different levels of the ENM, which contradicts previous hypotheses. Finally, the number of generic topics being discussed between users seems to be a good predictor of the overall positivity of their relationships.