发表机构
London School of Economics; Corvinus University; Central European University; University of Oxford（伦敦政治经济学院; 科尔维努斯大学; 中欧大学; 牛津大学）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。AI 中文总结
该研究针对2020年BLM抗议核心参与者的转发网络，发现抗议高峰期接触社交机器人会导致人类网络凝聚力下降，且损失集中在运动支持者中，机器人主要通过破坏集体行动纽带而非改变信念削弱激进主义。
AI 中文摘要
社交机器人如今在在线政治传播中占据了相当大的比例，相关研究主要将其视为虚假信息和放大内容的生产者。人们对它们的存在是否会重塑维系社会运动的人际关系知之甚少。我们探究在抗议活动高峰期接触机器人后，人类网络的凝聚力是否会随之削弱。我们追踪了2020年黑人的命也是命（BLM）抗议活动核心参与者的转发网络，涵盖高峰期前后的时间段，从两个规模层面测量凝聚力变化：个体自我网络中的三元闭合，以及检测到的社区内的边密度。高峰期更高的机器人接触量，预示着随后两个层面的人类凝聚力都会出现更急剧的下降，且这种损失集中在该运动的支持者群体中。机器人削弱激进主义的方式，可能较少是改变人们的信念，更多是破坏维系集体行动的纽带。
英文摘要
Social bots now make up a substantial share of online political communication, where they are studied mainly as producers of misinformation and amplified content. Far less is known about whether their presence reshapes the human relationships that hold movements together. We ask whether exposure to bots during a protest peak is followed by the erosion of cohesion in human networks. Tracking retweet networks of core participants in the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests before, during, and after the peak, we measure change in cohesion at two scales: triadic closure in individual ego networks and edge density within detected communities. Greater bot exposure during the peak predicts steeper subsequent declines in human cohesion at both scales, and the loss concentrates among supporters of the movement. Bots may weaken activism less by changing what people believe than by dissolving the ties through which collective action is sustained.
Comments4 figures, 39 pages (including supplementary information)
