| 1. |
- Arnesen, S., et al.
(författare)
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Do Polls Influence Opinions? Investigating Poll Feedback Loops Using the Novel Dynamic Response Feedback Experimental Procedure
- 2018
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Ingår i: Social Science Computer Review. - : SAGE Publications. - 0894-4393 .- 1552-8286. ; 36:6, s. 735-743
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Opinion polls may inadvertently affect public opinion, as people may change their attitudes after learning what others think. A disconcerting possibility is that opinion polls have the ability to create information cascades, wherein the majority opinion becomes increasingly larger over time. Testing poll influence on attitudes toward Syrian refugees and mandatory measles vaccination, we field survey experiments on a probability-based online survey panel. Through a novel automated procedure labeled the dynamic response feedback, we measure whether the answers from early poll respondents can influence the opinions of subsequent respondents who learn the answers of the previous respondents. Using this procedure, no feedback loops are identified.
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| 2. |
- Bravo, Giangiacomo, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
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Cooperation and conflict in segregated populations
- 2020
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Ingår i: Social science computer review. - Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications. - 0894-4393 .- 1552-8286. ; 38:4, s. 405-421
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Humans behavior often varies depending on the opponent’s group membership, with both positive consequences (e.g., cooperation or mutual help) and negative ones (e.g., stereotyping, oppression, or even genocide). An influential model developed by Hammond and Axelrod (HA) highlighted the emergence of macrolevel “ethnocentric cooperation” from the aggregation of microlevel interactions based on arbitrary tags signaling group membership. We extended this model to include a wider set of agents’ behaviors including the possibility of harming others. This allowed to check whether and under which conditions xenophobia can emerge beside or in alternative to ethnocentric cooperation. The model was compared to Swedish data documenting social unrest and proxies of cooperative behaviors at the municipal level. The validation results supported the model predictions on conflict but not the ones on cooperation, casting doubts on HA’s original argument.
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| 3. |
- Colins, Olivier, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Max Weber and Alfred Schutz : the theoretical and methodological background of the case-oriented quantification approach behind winMAX
- 2008
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Ingår i: Social science computer review. - : SAGE Publications. - 0894-4393 .- 1552-8286. ; 26:3, s. 369-378
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The case-oriented quantification approach behind the software program winMAX is, according to its founder, Kuckartz, based on the methodological and theoretical work of Max Weber and Alfred Schutz. This claimed connection is not, however, explained in depth in the author's available scientific literature. This article clarifies the methodological and theoretical backgrounds to winMAX, with special focus on the influence of Weber and Schutz. It became clear that-in spite of similarities-Weber and Schutz differ in several respects, which raises objections to the claimed connection and puts practical application to the test. More in-depth information is therefore needed to apply Kuckartz's case-oriented quantification approach in social research with respect to its theoretical background.
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| 4. |
- Dahlberg, Stefan, et al.
(författare)
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A Distributional Semantic Online Lexicon for Linguistic Explorations of Societies
- 2023
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Ingår i: Social Science Computer Review. - : SAGE Publications. - 0894-4393 .- 1552-8286. ; 41:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Linguistic Explorations of Societies (LES) is an interdisciplinary research project with scholars from the fields of political science, computer science, and computational linguistics. The overarching ambition of LES has been to contribute to the survey-based comparative scholarship by compiling and analyzing online text data within and between languages and countries. To this end, the project has developed an online semantic lexicon, which allows researchers to explore meanings and usages of words in online media across a substantial number of geo-coded languages. The lexicon covers data from approximately 140 language-country combinations and is, to our knowledge, the most extensive free research resource of its kind. Such a resource makes it possible to critically examine survey translations and identify discrepancies in order to modify and improve existing survey methodology, and its unique features further enable Internet researchers to study public debate online from a comparative perspective. In this article, we discuss the social scientific rationale for using online text data as a complement to survey data, and present the natural language processing-based methodology behind the lexicon including its underpinning theory and practical modeling. Finally, we engage in a critical reflection about the challenges of using online text data to gauge public opinion and political behavior across the world.
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| 5. |
- Freelon, Deen, et al.
(författare)
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Black trolls matter : Racial and ideological asymmetries in social media disinformation
- 2022
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Ingår i: Social Science Computer Review. - : SAGE Publications. - 1552-8286 .- 0894-4393. ; 40:3, s. 560-578
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The recent rise of disinformation and propaganda on social media has attracted strong interest from social scientists. Research on the topic has repeatedly observed ideological asymmetries in disinformation content and reception, wherein conservatives are more likely to view, redistribute, and believe such content. However, preliminary evidence has suggested that race may also play a substantial role in determining the targeting and consumption of disinformation content. Such racial asymmetries may exist alongside, or even instead of, ideological ones. Our computational analysis of 5.2 million tweets by the Russian government-funded “troll farm” known as the Internet Research Agency sheds light on these possibilities. We find stark differences in the numbers of unique accounts and tweets originating from ostensibly liberal, conservative, and Black left-leaning individuals. But diverging from prior empirical accounts, we find racial presentation—specifically, presenting as a Black activist—to be the most effective predictor of disinformation engagement by far. Importantly, these results could only be detected once we disaggregated Black-presenting accounts from non-Black liberal accounts. In addition to its contributions to the study of ideological asymmetry in disinformation content and reception, this study also underscores the general relevance of race to disinformation studies.
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| 6. |
- Grönlund, Åke, 1954-
(författare)
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Emerging electronic infrastructures : exploring democratic components
- 2003
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Ingår i: Social science computer review. - : SAGE Publications. - 0894-4393 .- 1552-8286. ; 21:1, s. 55-72
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The concepts of electronic government and electronic democracy have common roots in that electronic government must rest on, and support, democratic principles. This article discusses how the components of a democratic society are treated as they are built into the emerging electronic infrastructures, dealing with services and dialogues pertinent to the functioning of the public sector, and tries to find emerging patterns. This article opens a discussion on the nature of the emerging infrastructures by reviewing four implementations of local e-democracy and putting them into the context of global e-government development, in particular the European Union’s development of “eEurope.” It is found that the cases represent different models of democracy, models that are only partially explicit. The development is governed more by gradual implementation of information and communication technology than a general political agenda. This means local actors have great influence, and hence, e-democracy is not deterministic; it can come in many shapes.
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| 7. |
- Hansson, Karin, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Open Government and Democracy : A Research Review
- 2015
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Ingår i: Social science computer review. - : SAGE Publications. - 0894-4393 .- 1552-8286. ; 33:5, s. 540-555
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The concept of open government, having been promoted widely in the past 5 years, has promised a broader notion than e-government, as supposed to fundamentally transform governments to become more open and participative and collaborative. Unfortunately, this has not significantly enhanced a set of fundamental problems regarding e-government. One of the problems is that the underlying democratic ideology is rarely clearly expressed. In this paper, we have therefore constructed a framework for the analysis of open government from a democratic perspective, to explore the research foundation of open government and the types of research missing. We have looked closely at the notion of democracy in peer-reviewed journals on open government from 2009 to 2013, focusing on discussions of some fundamental issues regarding democracy and the type of solutions suggested. We have found that despite seemingly good intentions and an extensive rhetoric, there is still an apparent lack of adequate tools in which public deliberation and representation are addressed in any meaningful sense. There are two main important observations herein: (i) the rhetoric in the dominant discourse supports the concept of open government formulated by the Obama administration as transparency, participation, and collaboration, but in practice, the focus is predominantly on transparency and information exchange, while ignoring fundamental democratic issues regarding participation and collaboration, and (ii) the concept of the public is inadequately considered as a homogenous entity rather than a diversified group with different interests, preferences, and abilities.
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| 8. |
- Lindgren, Elina, et al.
(författare)
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Invitation Timing and Participation Rates in Online Panels: Findings From Two Survey Experiments
- 2020
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Ingår i: Social Science Computer Review. - : SAGE Publications. - 0894-4393 .- 1552-8286. ; 38:2, s. 225-244
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Falling participation rates is one of the most significant challenges facing survey research today. To curb this negative trend, scholars have searched for factors that can increase and decrease citizens’ willingness to participate in surveys. In this article, we investigate the timing effects of survey invitation e-mails on participation rates in a university-based online panel with members of the Swedish public. Through two large-scale experimental studies, we examine whether the day of week (N = 11,294) and time of day (N = 47,279) for sending out survey invitations impact participation rates. We also ask respondents when they prefer to answer surveys. We find that the timing of survey invitations affects participation rates, however, the effects are small, short-lived, and even out within a week. We also find that the effects of timing vary by employment status and age. The results have implications for scholars and practitioners who utilize online panels for web surveys. When quick answers are important, there may be some limited gains of tailoring the timing of the survey invitation to different individuals. In surveys with more extended field periods, however, such efforts seem less warranted.
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| 9. |
- Lorentzen, David, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Approaching Completeness : Capturing a Hashtagged Twitter Conversation and its Follow-On Conversation
- 2015
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Ingår i: Social science computer review. - : Sage Publications. - 0894-4393 .- 1552-8286. ; 35:2, s. 277-286
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this article is to engage with problems of sampling and completeness currently discussed within data science through the specific example of conversations in Twitter. Some of the difficulties involved in Twitter concern restrictions laid out by platform owners, restrictions that make it difficult for researchers to collect complete conversations. A contribution is made through the development of a method for collecting and analyzing follow-on conversations around a set of hashtags. This was made possible through the simultaneous tracking of a set of hashtags and prominent participants in the conversation. The full set of tweets was compared to the subset of tweets including either of the selected hashtags. Including follow-on conversation increased the set of tweets by 56% and the set of tweeting users by 17%. It is also shown that different network analysis techniques and filtering options give different results with regard to prominent users.
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| 10. |
- Ranerup, Agneta, 1960
(författare)
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Decision Support Systems for Public Policy Implementation The Case of Pension Reform
- 2008
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Ingår i: Social Science Computer Review. - : SAGE Publications. - 0894-4393 .- 1552-8286. ; 26:4, s. 428-445
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article argues that the Internet not only serves as a basis for public service delivery but features in public policy implementation, with the specific aim of supporting the individual's decisions in educational policy, labor market policy, and pension policy. The present study is based on the actor-network theory and illustrates the process during which a decision support system (DSS), provided via the Internet, is part of public policy implementation, with a focus on pension policy and the choice of premium pension funds. The idea of supporting choice via a DSS was supported by many actors-albeit to a lesser degree by citizens'-active use. Technology has developed from providing information and facilities for changing funds online into offering a DSS for advanced financial decisions. A final conclusion is that there are two ways of supporting citizens in choosing funds: the provision of a DSS and simplifying the available options.
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