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The recent availability of data describing social networks is changing our understanding of the "microscopic structure" of a social tie. A social tie indeed is an aggregated outcome of many social interactions such as face-to-face…
Visual culture has long been deployed by actors across the political spectrum as tools of political mobilization, and have recently incorporated new communication tools, such as memes, GIFs, and emojis. In this study, we analyze the…
Teams are a primary source of innovation in science and technology. Rather than examining the lone genius, scholarly and policy attention has shifted to understanding how team interactions produce new and useful ideas. Yet the…
We address the problem of diversification in religions by studying selection on cultural memes that colonize humans hosts. In analogy to studying the evolution of pathogens or symbionts colonizing animal hosts, we use models for…
For marketing to function in a globalized world it must respect a diverse set of local cultures. With marketing efforts extending to social media platforms, the crossing of cultural boundaries can happen in an instant. In this paper we…
This paper proposes a rigorous framework to examine the two-way relationship between artificial intelligence (AI), human cognition, problem-solving, and cultural adaptation across academic and business settings. It addresses a key gap by…
This paper presents a robust solution to the Memotion 3.0 Shared Task. The goal of this task is to classify the emotion and the corresponding intensity expressed by memes, which are usually in the form of images with short captions on…
Understanding how ideas relate to each other is a fundamental question in many domains, ranging from intellectual history to public communication. Because ideas are naturally embedded in texts, we propose the first framework to…
Social systems are in a constant state of flux with dynamics spanning from minute-by-minute changes to patterns present on the timescale of years. Accurate models of social dynamics are important for understanding spreading of influence or…
Motifs are distinctive recurring elements found in folklore that have significance as communicative devices in news, literature, press releases, and propaganda. Motifs concisely imply a large constellation of culturally-relevant…
Meme clustering is critical for toxicity detection, virality modeling, and typing, but it has received little attention in previous research. Clustering similar Internet memes is challenging due to their multimodality, cultural context, and…
Humor, deeply rooted in societal meanings and cultural details, poses a unique challenge for machines. While advances have been made in natural language processing, real-world humor often thrives in a multi-modal context, encapsulated…
Conspiracy theories, or in general seriously distorted beliefs, are widespread. How and why are they formed in the brain is still more a matter of speculation rather than science. In this paper one plausible mechanisms is investigated:…
Understanding online communities requires an appreciation of both structure and culture. But basic questions remain difficult to pose. How do these facets interact and drive each other? Using data on the membership and governance styles of…
Why do some things succeed in the marketplace of ideas? While some argue that content drives success, others suggest that style, or the way ideas are presented, also plays an important role. To provide a stringent test of style's…
Online communities develop unique characteristics, establish social norms, and exhibit distinct dynamics among their members. Activity in online communities often results in concrete ``off-line'' actions with a broad societal impact (e.g.,…
Formal modelling provides a toolkit for understanding cultural dynamics, from individual decisions to recurring patterns of change. This chapter explains what models are and why they matter. Using a precise, shared language, they aid…
The fundamental building block of social influence is for one person to elicit a response in another. Researchers measuring a "response" in social media typically depend either on detailed models of human behavior or on platform-specific…
Hateful memes are an emerging method of spreading hate on the internet, relying on both images and text to convey a hateful message. We take an interpretable approach to hateful meme detection, using machine learning and simple heuristics…
A main characteristic of social media is that its diverse content, copiously generated by both standard outlets and general users, constantly competes for the scarce attention of large audiences. Out of this flood of information some topics…