Gaining and Losing Influence in Online Conversation

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a study we conducted to determine, if a person who is highly influential in a discussion on a familiar topic would retain influence when moving to a topic that is less familiar or perhaps not as interesting. For this research, we collected samples of realistic on-line chat room discussions on several topics related to current issues in education, technology, arts, sports, finances, current affairs, etc. The collected data allowed us to create models for specific types of conversational behavior, such as agreement, disagreement, support, persuasion, negotiation, etc. These models were used to study influence in online discussions. It also allowed us to study how human influence works in online discussion and what affects a person's influence from one topic to another. We found that influence is impacted by topic familiarity, sometimes dramatically, and we explain how it is affected and why.

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