Detecting Hybrid Social Identities: A Computational Analysis of Influence and Resilience in Online RWE Communities
This project adapts a social identity approach to investigate which topics from online ecological movements are likely to be used by eco-fascists to spread their ideology. Second, the team will train and validate an automated social identity assessment (ASIA) tool that accurately detects which identity (eco or fascist) is situationally salient, and then examine the active use of the hybrid-identity to gain influence in online communities . Third, the team will examine changes in the types and use of norms within overt and covert eco-fascist communities. The research strategy is to i) identify and simulate how a hybrid-identity group, i.e. the eco-fascist community, become resilient to detection; ii) identify mechanisms of engineering social influence through a hybrid identity; and iii) explore how these findings can be used to directly benefit security.
