Dynamics of collective minds in online communities

Dynamics of collective minds in online communities | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Social Sciences - Article Dynamics of collective minds in online communities Seungwoong Ha, Henrik Olsson, Kresimir Jaksic, Max Pellert, Mirta Galesic This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6423149/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract How communities respond to diverse societal challenges, from economic crises to political upheavals, is shaped by their collective minds - shared representations of ongoing events and current topics. In turn, collective minds are shaped by a continuous stream of influences, amplified by the rapid rise of online platforms. Online communities must understand these influences to maintain healthy discourse and avoid being manipulated, but understanding is hindered by limited observations and the inability to conduct counterfactual experiments. Here, we show how collective minds in online news communities can be influenced by different editorial agenda-setting practices and aspects of community dynamics, and how these influences can be reversed. We develop a computational model of collective minds, calibrated and validated with data from 400 million comments across five U.S. online news platforms and a large-scale survey. The model enables us to describe and experiment with a variety of influences and derive quantitative insights into their magnitude and persistence in different communities. We find that some editorial influences can be reversed relatively rapidly, but others, such as amplification and reframing of certain topics, as well as community influences such as trolling and counterspeech, tend to persist and durably change the collective mind. These findings illuminate ways collective minds can be manipulated and pathways for communities to maintain healthy and authentic collective discourse amid ongoing societal challenges. Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Society Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Interdisciplinary studies Collective dynamics Online community Semantic network Agenda-setting Computational model Large language model Topic modeling Counterfactual experiment Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files NatureEF.pdf Extended Data Figures 1, 2, and 3 (pdf) NatureSI.pdf Supplementary Information (pdf). Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6423149","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Social Sciences - Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":445925675,"identity":"7b13c84c-3211-4e03-a2fa-d13b962ea547","order_by":0,"name":"Seungwoong 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In turn, collective minds are shaped by a continuous stream of influences, amplified by the rapid rise of online platforms. Online communities must understand these influences to maintain healthy discourse and avoid being manipulated, but understanding is hindered by limited observations and the inability to conduct counterfactual experiments. Here, we show how collective minds in online news communities can be influenced by different editorial agenda-setting practices and aspects of community dynamics, and how these influences can be reversed. We develop a computational model of collective minds, calibrated and validated with data from 400 million comments across five U.S. online news platforms and a large-scale survey. The model enables us to describe and experiment with a variety of influences and derive quantitative insights into their magnitude and persistence in different communities. We find that some editorial influences can be reversed relatively rapidly, but others, such as amplification and reframing of certain topics, as well as community influences such as trolling and counterspeech, tend to persist and durably change the collective mind. 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