Do downvote buttons in online discussions protect communities from unruly comments, attract partisan conflict, or do they achieve both of those things?
CAT Lab worked with the 3-million subscriber r/politics discussion community on reddit to investigate the effect of downvote buttons on behavior in an online community.
- Blog post: Do Downvote Buttons Cause Unruly Online Behavior? (Jan 2018)
- Study materials:
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Discussions: Analysis Plan (October 2017)
- Analysis code on github
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