Online network topology shapes personal narratives and hashtag generation

TL;DR

This study explores how online network structures influence the formation of personal narratives and hashtag generation during collective interpretation of a disaster event, highlighting the role of network topology in shaping discourse.

Contribution

It introduces an online network experiment demonstrating how network topology affects narrative coordination and hashtag creation in digital social groups.

Findings

Network structure influences dominant belief emergence.

Network topology impacts use of causal language.

Participants' narratives are shaped by their network connections.

Abstract

While narratives have shaped cognition and cultures for centuries, digital media and online social networks have introduced new narrative phenomena. With increased narrative agency, networked groups of individuals can directly contribute and steer narratives that center our collective discussions of politics, science, and morality. We report the results of an online network experiment on narrative and hashtag generation, in which networked groups of participants interpreted a text-based narrative of a disaster event, and were incentivized to produce matching hashtags with their network neighbors. We found that network structure not only influences the emergence of dominant beliefs through coordination with network neighbors, but also impacts participants' use of causal language in their personal narratives.