On 29 October – 1 November, 2022, four of us from LiT.RL, FIMS, Western University took part in the ASIS&T2022 Conference. We managed to do a bit of sightseeing in Pittsburgh, made wonderful connections with colleagues from other universities, enjoyed several talks, SIG events, and the keynote addresses.

On behalf of all seven of us, we presented four co-authored from our recent Western-funded Project, entitled “Rewiring for Happiness” (2021-22). The details for the four inter-related papers that were peer-reviewed and accepted at ASIST2022 are below (see the suggested citations, abstracts, and keywords). The full texts of these short works are published in the ASIST2022 Proceedings here.

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Chen, Y., Cornwell, S.,  Delellis, N. S., Kelly, D., Liu, Y., Mayhew, A., &  Rubin, V. L. (2022). Engagement for Good or Ill: Comparing Characteristics of Co-Creative and Co-Destructive Online Communities. The 85th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T2022): “Crisis, Transition, Resilience: Re–Imagining an Information–Resilient Society,” October 29 – November 1, 2022, Pittsburgh, PA.

ABSTRACT: Highly engaged online communities can be characterized in terms of level of user activity and the valence of those activities. Positively-valenced communities engage in co-construction through supportive, uplifting interactions, while negatively-valenced communities engage in co-destruction through shared animosity towards outside individuals and groups. Both types of engagement offer prosocial benefits to community members, but this benefit is achieved through antisocial means in co-destructive communities. This study examines the features of one positively-valenced and one negatively-valenced subreddit community to determine if the same engagement factors drive participation in each, and whether these factors may be influenced to promote positive, rather than negative engagement.
KEYWORDS: Social media; online communities; prosocial and antisocial behavior; reddit

Delellis, N. S., Kelly, D., Liu, Y., Mayhew, A., Chen, Y., Cornwell, S., & Rubin, V. L. (2022).  Applying Positive Psychology’s Subjective Well-Being to Online Interactions. The 85th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T2022): “Crisis, Transition, Resilience: Re–Imagining an Information–Resilient Society,” October 29 – November 1, 2022, Pittsburgh, PA.

ABSTRACT: This paper outlines the complexity of the psychological construct of individuals’ subjective well-being (SWB) and argues for the importance of examining behaviours and linguistic expression of individuals online social interactions in relation to self-reported SWB. This paper calls for a systematic review of the psychology research which examines SWB and its association with various character strengths, personality traits, and behaviours. While the Big Five personality traits (OCEAN) have an underlying neuropsychological basis and are considered as universal dimensions of personality along which humans differ one from another, minimal research has attempted to evaluate the relationship between personality traits, SWB, and online interactions.
KEYWORDS: Subjective Well-Being (SWB); Positive Psychology; Personality Traits; Online Interaction Context; Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Mayhew, A., Chen, Y., Cornwell, S. E., Delellis, N. S., Kelly, D., Liu, Y., & Rubin, V. L. (2022). Envisioning Ethical Mass Influence Systems. The 85th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T2022): “Crisis, Transition, Resilience: Re–Imagining an Information–Resilient Society,” October 29 – November 1, 2022, Pittsburgh, PA.October 29 – November 1, 2022, Pittsburgh, PA.    

ABSTRACT: This work envisions the possibility of ethical Mass Influence Systems (MISs). Modern algorithmic MISs, like Facebook and YouTube, have seen a link between the systems design for profit maximization and the increased radicalization of users (Wu, 2017). Using a Goals analysis grounded in philosophy (Falcon, 2022; Lipton, 1990; Bostrom, 2014), we will contrast the goals of existing algorithmic MISs with the goals of a future ethical algorithmic MIS. With the philosophical guidance of the Moral Parliament (Newberry & Ord, 2021) and the Moral Landscape (Janoff-Bulman & Carnes, 2013), we elaborate on a set of goals and mechanisms for promoting human flourishing via ethical MISs.

KEYWORDS: Ethics, Analytic Philosophy, Proximate and Ultimate Causation; Moral Parliament, Moral Landscape, Flourishing

Kelly, D., Liu, Y., Mayhew, A., Chen, Y., Cornwell, S. E., Delellis, N. S., & Rubin, V. L. (2022). Supporting Prosocial Behaviour in Online Communities through Social Media Affordances. The 85th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T2022): “Crisis, Transition, Resilience: Re–Imagining an Information–Resilient Society,” October 29 – November 1, 2022, Pittsburgh, PA.

ABSTRACT: Affordances are action possibilities that emerge from the relationship between the properties of an object and an interacting agent’s capabilities. This poster examines how one type of affordance—anonymity—is enabled or constrained by six features of social media platforms. Our work is one step in a broader agenda to: (1) identify affordances that influence users’ behaviour in online communities; (2) outline the social media features that enable or constrain those affordances; and, (3) experimentally determine whether certain affordances, or combinations of affordances, support prosocial behaviour. Prosocial behaviour in information and communication technologies (ICTs) is broadly viewed here as benefiting other individuals in online communities, which in turn could increase the subjective well-being (SWB) of the community’s members. SWB is characterized by high positive affect, low negative affect, and high life satisfaction. A more Extended Abstract is here.
KEYWORDS: Anonymity; Affordances; Social Media Design; Human-Computer Interaction; Prosocial Behaviour

We very much enjoyed the trip and various activities associated with the conference. The downtown Pittsburgh was particularly stunning at night!