The Evolution of Polarization in Online Conversation: Twitter Users’ Opinions about the COVID-19 Pandemic Become More Politicized over Time

<div>Number of Democrat (blue/lighter bars) and Republican (red/darker bars) users in our dataset who follow different numbers of seed accounts in Table <a href="https://static.hindawi.com/articles/hbet/volume-2023/9094933/figures/#supplementary-material-1">S1</a>. The subscript AnBm indicates users who follow <svg height="6.1673pt" id="M2" style="vertical-align:-0.2063904pt" version="1.1" viewbox="-0.0498162 -5.96091 6.6501 6.1673" width="6.6501pt" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><g transform="matrix(.013,0,0,-0.013,0,0)"><path d="M495 86L479 114C446 82 419 66 409 66C401 66 401 72 406 97C420 166 436 231 453 297C489 435 454 448 428 448C406 448 384 439 354 422C305 394 222 327 161 247H159L183 345C200 415 194 448 173 448C143 448 82 410 23 351L38 325C64 349 95 371 105 371C111 371 116 365 109 336L25 -4L31 -12C50 -4 77 3 107 9C119 69 132 122 145 168C197 254 321 381 370 381C387 381 393 374 378 305L329 95C309 17 320 -12 345 -12C372 -12 430 19 495 86Z"></path></g></svg> seed accounts from group A and <svg height="6.1673pt" id="M3" style="vertical-align:-0.2063904pt" version="1.1" viewbox="-0.0498162 -5.96091 10.3951 6.1673" width="10.3951pt" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><g transform="matrix(.013,0,0,-0.013,0,0)"><path d="M766 88L752 113C719 83 690 64 681 64C674 64 672 74 679 103L724 292C758 436 724 448 701 448C680 448 666 442 639 429C594 407 514 350 441 252H439L447 289C476 423 450 448 419 448C398 448 379 441 355 427C307 400 234 344 162 249H160L180 324C203 409 197 448 170 448C144 448 82 413 23 349L35 321C57 343 96 374 108 374C115 374 117 371 111 341C87 227 57 112 24 -6L32 -12C53 -4 81 4 108 6C119 68 134 128 149 171C177 229 309 383 364 383C387 383 388 355 373 282C354 190 330 92 303 -6L309 -12C332 -4 356 3 386 6C396 63 411 122 424 171C458 236 590 383 642 383C658 383 664 369 652 315L603 91C587 20 593 -12 619 -12C642 -12 708 23 766 88Z"></path></g></svg> seed accounts from group B. For example, the top left bar indicates that there were 7271 Democrats who followed three Democrats and no Republicans.</div>

Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies

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Figure 1

Figure 1: The Evolution of Polarization in Online Conversation: Twitter Users’ Opinions about the COVID-19 Pandemic Become More Politicized over Time 

Figure 1 | The Evolution of Polarization in Online Conversation: Twitter Users’ Opinions about the COVID-19 Pandemic Become More Politicized over Time 