Language Mutations Sustain the Persistences of Conspiracy Theories on Social Media
This study investigates how language mutations affect the persistent diffusion of conspiracy theories on social media. Drawing on a three-year dataset of conspiracy-related posts from X, and applying computational linguistic analysis alongside survival modelling, we find that conspiracy claims with greater semantic mutations have substantially longer lifespans. Mutations in psycholinguistic properties, including pronouns, social reference words, cognitive process terms, risk- and health- related vocabularies, are associated with extended lifespans. Mutations in actor, action and target (AAT) categories are associated with longer lifespans as well. Qualitative analysis identifies two predo...
| Authors | Calvin Yixiang Cheng, Dorian Quelle, Scott A. Hale |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.CL |
| Published | 19 May 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 19 May 2026 |
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