[1L4-GS-5] Web intelligence: Social data analysis (1)

[1L4-GS-5-05] Polyphony

A SNS system that promotes diverse social ties

〇Kazutoshi Sasahara¹, Bruno Toshio Sugano¹, Shinpei Okuda¹, Ayahito Saji¹, Syu Kato¹ (1. Nagoya University)

Keywords:echo chamber, social media, nudge, computational social science

Social media are supposed to connect diverse information and people, but now blamed for promoting social divisions and information homogenization. A typical example is “echo chamber.” In this study, we propose a social networking principle that mitigates echo chamber effect by facilitating diverse social connections. The proposed principle is that “Nudge users to promote the creation of unexpected social ties based on a variety of personal attributes, while limiting social influence by peers online.” As a consequence, diverse weak ties may emerge continuously, thus increasing and maintaining information diversity dynamically at the social network level. We implemented this principle in a new SNS (Polyphony), and started a pilot experiment using it. In this presentation, we will talk about the background and details of the proposed principle as well as the progress of the pilot experiment.