Overview
- The peer-reviewed study, published in Science Advances, analyzed six private subreddits over four weeks run by researchers from the Max Planck Institute, TU Dresden, and Stanford.
- Researchers recorded 5,819 prompt responses plus about 62,000 additional comments and linked behavior to surveys taken before, during, and after the experiment.
- Perceived toxicity, disrespect, or polarization predicted silence for many participants but corresponded with higher output from already active users.
- The most active contributors skewed male and highly interested in politics, aligning with self-reported likelihood to comment online.
- Interventions showed mixed effects: $2 per day raised participation with only modest reduction in dominance, normative civility prompts did little, and upvotes predicted increased activity the next day; authors recommend onboarding rewards, consistent anti-toxicity enforcement, and caps on comment counts.