Identifying Constructive Conflict in Online Discussions through Controversial yet Toxicity Resilient Posts

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Seckin, Ozgur Can, Truong, Bao Tran, Flammini, Alessandro, Menczer, Filippo
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Seckin, Ozgur Can
Truong, Bao Tran
Flammini, Alessandro
Menczer, Filippo
author_facet Seckin, Ozgur Can
Truong, Bao Tran
Flammini, Alessandro
Menczer, Filippo
contents Bridging content that brings together individuals with opposing viewpoints on social media remains elusive, overshadowed by echo chambers and toxic exchanges. We propose that algorithmic curation could surface such content by considering constructive conflicts as a foundational criterion. We operationalize this criterion through controversiality to identify challenging dialogues and toxicity resilience to capture respectful conversations. We develop high-accuracy models to capture these dimensions. Analyses based on these models demonstrate that assessing resilience to toxic responses is not the same as identifying low-toxicity posts. We also find that political posts are often controversial and tend to attract more toxic responses. However, some posts, even the political ones, are resilient to toxicity despite being highly controversial, potentially sparking civil engagement. Toxicity resilient posts tend to use politeness cues, such as showing gratitude and hedging. These findings suggest the potential for framing the tone of posts to encourage constructive political discussions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_18303
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Identifying Constructive Conflict in Online Discussions through Controversial yet Toxicity Resilient Posts
Seckin, Ozgur Can
Truong, Bao Tran
Flammini, Alessandro
Menczer, Filippo
Social and Information Networks
Computers and Society
Bridging content that brings together individuals with opposing viewpoints on social media remains elusive, overshadowed by echo chambers and toxic exchanges. We propose that algorithmic curation could surface such content by considering constructive conflicts as a foundational criterion. We operationalize this criterion through controversiality to identify challenging dialogues and toxicity resilience to capture respectful conversations. We develop high-accuracy models to capture these dimensions. Analyses based on these models demonstrate that assessing resilience to toxic responses is not the same as identifying low-toxicity posts. We also find that political posts are often controversial and tend to attract more toxic responses. However, some posts, even the political ones, are resilient to toxicity despite being highly controversial, potentially sparking civil engagement. Toxicity resilient posts tend to use politeness cues, such as showing gratitude and hedging. These findings suggest the potential for framing the tone of posts to encourage constructive political discussions.
title Identifying Constructive Conflict in Online Discussions through Controversial yet Toxicity Resilient Posts
topic Social and Information Networks
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.18303