Abstract
This study examines how factual claims of different significance influence and reflect social media users’ behavioral patterns. Leveraging “check-worthiness” as a measure of the factual significance of claims, we analyze the connection between factual claims and user behaviors on Twitter. Through a series of experiments using statistical methods such as correlation analysis and hypothesis testing, we provide insights into a few pivotal inquiries: (1) whether differences exist between users’ tweeting tendencies toward check-worthiness, (2) the underlying reasons for such differences, (3) whether users tend to create, share, and endorse content with check-worthiness levels similar to their own tweets, and (4) whether users with similar tendencies toward check-worthiness exhibit heightened engagement. The experiments were conducted across three datasets, comprising over 48.5 million tweets and involving 15,000 users, spanning several domains and yielding statistically significant findings. Previous studies have primarily centered on examining the effectiveness and strategies of fact-checks rather than understanding people’s behavioral tendencies toward factual claims. Our research pioneers understanding in this area, offering valuable insights for behavioral modeling and social sciences.
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Acknowledgement
This work is partially supported by the National Science Foundation award #2346261. The authors acknowledge the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin for providing HPC resources that have contributed to the research results reported within this paper.
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Zhang, Z., Zhu, Z., Zhang, H., Li, C. (2025). Exploring Behavioral Tendencies on Social Media: A Perspective Through Claim Check-Worthiness. In: Aiello, L.M., Chakraborty, T., Gaito, S. (eds) Social Networks Analysis and Mining. ASONAM 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15211. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-78541-2_23
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