Language Mutations Sustain the Persistences of Conspiracy Theories on Social Media

TL;DR

This paper explores how language mutations in conspiracy theories on social media contribute to their long-term persistence, using linguistic analysis and survival models over a three-year dataset.

Contribution

It reveals that semantic and structural language mutations significantly extend conspiracy theories' lifespans and identifies key mutation patterns affecting persistence.

Findings

Greater semantic mutations lead to longer conspiracy lifespans.

Mutations in psycholinguistic properties are linked to extended persistence.

Simplification and assimilation are dominant mutation patterns.

Abstract

This study investigates how language mutations affect the persistent diffusion of conspiracy theories on social media. Drawing on a three-year dataset of conspiracy-related posts from X, and applying computational linguistic analysis alongside survival modelling, we find that conspiracy claims with greater semantic mutations have substantially longer lifespans. Mutations in psycholinguistic properties, including pronouns, social reference words, cognitive process terms, risk- and health- related vocabularies, are associated with extended lifespans. Mutations in actor, action and target (AAT) categories are associated with longer lifespans as well. Qualitative analysis identifies two predominant mutation patterns: simplification and assimilation, at both linguistic and AAT structural levels. Taken together, the results advance our understanding of how language mutations contribute to conspiracy persistence online and shed lights on longitudinal content moderation strategies. We argue that content moderation should consider the mutability of conspiracy claims and focus on the core claims that can address their potential variations.