Opinion dynamics of online social network users: a micro-level analysis

Abstract

In this paper, we present an empirical study of the opinion dynamics of a large-scale sample of online social network users. We estimate users’ opinions as continuous scalars based on their subscriptions to information sources and analyze how friendship connections affect the dynamics of these estimations. Distinguishing between positive (toward friends’ opinions) and negative (away from friends’ opinions) opinion shifts, we find that the existence and magnitude of both types of shifts are positively related (largely through linear or inverted U-shaped form) to the distance in opinions between a user and their friends. The distance additionally moderates the balance between positive and negative movements: if the distance is within a certain moderate range, there is a relatively high chance of a positive shift.