Research: authoritarian power influences people's social media behavior

Portuguese researchers have studied how different political regimes affect people's behaviour in social

They assimilated data from 6,750 posts from 225 different Facebook brand pages in 15 countries.It turned out that people's relationship with the authorities affects how users evaluateand comment on social media posts.

The researchers categorized engagement metrics, namely the number of likes, shares, and comments.They also looked at how people use different emojis —"love," "wow," and "funny"—to rate a post.The experts then added data on the political situation in different countries to the analysis.

As a result, scientists have found severalinteresting correlations. For example, in countries with low levels of individualism and those where the authorities have distanced themselves from people, users share messages more often than comment on them. In other words, the more authoritative the government in the country, the more people simply share posts without commenting on them. The researchers also found that the use of “funny” or “wow” emoticons instead of the standard “like” was also associated with higher levels of individualism in the state.

Individualism is a moral, political, and social worldview (philosophy, ideology) that emphasizesindividual freedom, the primacy of the individual, personal independence within the framework of the constitutional legal order.

Scientists note that their work is the firstpublished on the basis of real, organically collected data in the form of engagement metrics to analyze cultural differences. They intend to continue their research.

Read more

Watch the first private crew return from space to Earth

An amateur astronomer filmed an unknown body falling on Jupiter

The development of AI has reached a critical point. Scientists are asking to take control of technology