Emotional consequences and attention rewards: the social effects of ratings on Reddit

Jenny L. Davis*, Timothy Graham

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    31 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Rating features on social media platforms affect visibility algorithms and act as symbolic markers of evaluation. This paper addresses the social effects of content ratings through a case study of Reddit. Reddit is a social news site on which users in topic-based communities (subreddits) create posts upon which others upvote, downvote, and comment. Vote scores indicate convergence with, and divergence from, community norms. Analysing data from the platform's three most popular subreddits, we ask: How do rating features afford emotional expression and content engagement? Findings from a Variable-Lag Granger Causality model show that for a portion of Reddit users (14.5%), vote scores predict subsequent emotional expression, with upvotes preceding positive sentiments and downvotes preceding negative sentiments. This is the first systematic test of how ratings influence emotional expression on a social media platform. Findings also show that downvoted content receives higher levels of engagement than upvoted content. Together, these findings suggest a paradox in which divergence from community norms, as indicated by vote score patterns, have emotional consequences and attention rewards.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)649-666
    Number of pages18
    JournalInformation Communication and Society
    Volume24
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2021

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