The closer you are to your best friends, the more likely you are to be a jerk to someone you don't know.
April 10, 2026
Original Paper
Network Structure, Addressivity, and Civility in Networked Publics
SocArXiv · un6ev_v1
The Takeaway
We often think 'echo chambers' happen because people are isolated, but this research shows that close social bonds actually reward incivility. In tight networks, being aggressive to 'the others' becomes a way to prove loyalty to the group.
From the abstract
On open social media platforms, the convergence of diverse, often incompatible audiences—colleagues, family, strangers—within a single communicative space creates persistent challenges for civil expression. This longitudinal study examines how the structural properties of users' social networks and their use of addressivity (@mentions and replies) shaped communication civility on Twitter during the early 2010s. Drawing on a dataset of 1,827 user timelines with over 1,700 tweets each spanning app