An experiment that tested harassment prevention policies for 1 month in a science discussion community on Reddit with approximately 13 million subscribers found that compared with discussions where community rules were not provided, discussions that posted community expectations increased newcomer participation by 70% and rule compliance by 8.4%, suggesting the benefits of ensuring that community norms are visible.
Article #18-13486: "Preventing harassment and increasing group participation through social norms in 2,190 online science discussions," by J. Nathan Matias.
MEDIA CONTACT: J. Nathan Matias, Princeton University, NJ; tel: 857-209-4137; email: jmatias@princeton.edu
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences