Young Complexity Researchers’ Lunch (YCRL) #32: Mapping ideology from online social interactions

The monthly Young Complexity Research Lunch (YCRL) is organised by the open group for Young Complexity Researchers Utrecht (YCRU), consisting of PhD candidates and postdocs at UU. This community building lunch event is designed specifically for young complexity researchers to share their complex systems science related work in a relaxing and informal settings, and to provide the opportunity to discuss challenges in Complex Systems Studies.

Hereby, we cordially invite you to the Young Complexity Researchers’ Lunch (YCRL) #32 on Monday 13 April (12:00-12:30) by Elena Candellone at the Centre for Complex Systems Studies (CCSS) where you can:

• Get a free gourmet lunch with the best sandwiches you can get in the Utrecht Science Park;

• Know one young complexity researchers' work over just 30 mins;

• Contribute your professional knowledge and experiences in a relaxing and informal setting;

• Develop potential collaboration.

YCRL #32: Modeling the Roots of Ideological Polarisation: Replicating Issue Asymmetry and Alignment using Opinion Dynamics
Leading young complexity researcher: Elena Candellone, Methodology and Statistics, Utrecht University 

Abstract:
This work investigates how positive and negative interactions on social media can be leveraged to infer users’ latent political ideologies, extending classical roll-call–based ideal point estimation to signed online voting networks. Using large-scale data from the Spanish platform Meneame and the Austrian news forum DerStandard, we combine topic modeling with network embedding techniques, namely Correspondence Analysis and the Signed Hamiltonian Eigenvector for Proximity (SHEEP), to map ideological structure across issues. We show that unsigned embeddings recover a left–right spectrum, while signed methods uncover extreme and antagonistic users, demonstrating that negative ties provide complementary insight into online polarization.

Everyone is welcome, and please feel free to invite your colleagues/friends/classmates/students to join us.

If you would like to have the lunch arrangement, please sign up before 9am Thursday 9 April.