Retracted: Emergent structures of attention on social media are driven by amplification and triad transitivity

2025/03/27 by Alyssa Smith, Jon Green, Brooke Foucault Welles +1 · 2 voices
Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #Complex Network Analysis Techniques #Misinformation and Its Impacts

paper · doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf106

Abstract

(or "third who joins"). We use an innovative technique to identify time-bounded Twitter/X following events, and then use difference-in-differences to show that attention brokers cause triad transitivity by amplifying content. Attention brokers intervene in the evolution of any sociotechnical system where individuals can amplify content while referencing its originator.

Citations

• The Strength of Weak Ties
• Explicit Estimates from Capture-Recapture Data with Both Death and Immigration-Stochastic Model
• A More Credible Approach to Parallel Trends

Discussions

• One of our case studies is @jortsthecat.bsky.social, whose amplification of pro-union posts likely brought more attention to union activism on Twitter. Jorts, please read my article?? doi.org/10.1093/ [bsky, 6 points, 1 comments]
• PNAS Nexus: Emergent structures of attention on social media are driven by amplification and triad transitivity http://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf106 [bsky, 3 points, 0 comments]

Related

• Timescale-agnostic characterisation for collective attention events
• Attention Inequality in Social Media
• The Production and Consumption of Social Media
• The Dynamics of Public Attention: Agenda-Setting Theory Meets Big Data
• Social media battle for attention: opinion dynamics on competing networks