Analytics & Society

Author(s): 

Kai Maeckle, Stefan Ruenzi

Cooperation Partners:

Chair of International Finance

Description:

The opioid epidemic is the most severe drug crisis in U.S. history. We examine the role of social connections in its spatial spread. Having many friend­ship links to counties with high opioid exposure positively correlates with overdose death rates. To establish causality, we exploit the introduction of must-access Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs that led users to substitute prescription drugs with illegal opioids. Having more friends in counties affected by these shocks leads to more overdoses. Strong local social networks mitigate such negative spillovers. At a general level, our results show how social connections contribute to the spread of non-infectious diseases.

Author(s): 

Florian Pethig, Kai-Lung Hui, Andreas Lanz, Hartmut Höhle

Cooperation Partners: 

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, HEC Paris

Description:

New members are important for the survival of online communities. However, hostility toward newcomers is pronounced in many online communities, often exercised through downvotes, rejections, and negative comments from established members. Online communities have realized that such negativity can take a toll on newcomers. In this paper, we study a new intervention aimed at reducing hostility toward newcomers: a “newcomer nudge,” which informs members when they are interacting with a newcomer post and nudges them to be more lenient toward its author. We use a natural experiment research design and analyze 5,027 newcomer posts published in a 90-day time window before and after the introduction of the nudge. We observe a strong increase in upvotes and number of responses as well as a decrease in negative sentiment in the responses. Taking advantage of the panel data, we find that newcomers who are socialized with the nudge are significantly more likely to post again in the following 12 months than newcomers socialized without the nudge.