Introducing ReChat: A Lab-in-the-Cloud for Text Discussions

Abstract

Text is a major medium of contemporary interpersonal communication but is difficult for social scientists to study unless they have significant resources or the skills to build their own research platform. In this paper, we introduce a cloud-based software solution to this problem: ReChat, an online research platform for conducting experimental and observational studies of live text conversations. We demonstrate ReChat by applying it to a specific phenomenon of interest to political scientists: conversations among co-partisans. We present results from two studies, focusing on (1) self-selection factors that make chat participants systematically unrepresentative and (2) a pre-registered analysis of loquaciousness that finds a significant association between speakers' ideological extremity and the amount they write in the chat. We conclude by discussing practical implications and advice for future practitioners of chat studies.