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Mitigating group polarization through positive and neutral comment bots

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  • Liu, Mingyu
  • Wu, Yue
  • Li, Wenjia

Abstract

The adverse effects of group polarization on social networks are becoming increasingly apparent in today's society, undermining constructive public discourse and threatening political and social stability. To mitigate group polarization, this paper proposes the MGP-PNCB framework, consisting of three modules: polarization data collection, comment generation, and bot embedding. By inputting manually configured prompts into the GPT model, positive and neutral comments are generated and disseminated with the aid of social bots. Additionally, it introduces a polarization alleviation index designed to measure the depolarization impact of specific comments. In the experiment, 60 social bots divided into three categories of 20 each were deployed across four topics, and received 2488 comments from 2183 users over 28 days. Results show that the average sentiment polarity of comments received by bots is more positive than that of regular users. Importantly, neutral bots are more effective in mitigating group polarization than positive ones under the same topic data training.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Mingyu & Wu, Yue & Li, Wenjia, 2025. "Mitigating group polarization through positive and neutral comment bots," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 667(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:667:y:2025:i:c:s0378437125002328
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2025.130580
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Wu, Yue & Li, Wenjia & Li, Yixiao & Chen, Qi & Liu, Mingyu & Li, Yuehui, 2024. "Alleviating negative group polarization with the aid of social bots," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 644(C).
    2. Shanto Iyengar & Sean J. Westwood, 2015. "Fear and Loathing Across Party Lines: New Evidence on Group Polarization," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 59(3), pages 690-707, July.
    3. repec:nas:journl:v:115:y:2018:p:9216-9221 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Wen Chen & Diogo Pacheco & Kai-Cheng Yang & Filippo Menczer, 2021. "Neutral bots probe political bias on social media," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
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