Googling Referendum Campaigns: Analyzing Online Search Patterns Regarding Swiss Direct-Democratic Votes

In direct democracies, voters are faced with considerable information demands. Although search engines are an important gateway to political information, it is still unclear what role they play in citizens’ information behavior regarding referendum campaigns. Moreover, few studies have examined the search terms that citizens use when searching for political information and the potential “user-input biases” in this regard. Therefore, we investigate to what extent citizens search online for information about upcoming referendums and what differences emerge between proponents, opponents, and non-voters regarding the search terms they used and the results they visited, related to three national ballot proposals voted on in Switzerland on November 28, 2021. The study combines cross-sectional survey data with longitudinal digital trace data containing participants’ Google Search histories obtained through data donations. Our findings show that participants rarely used Google to search for information about upcoming referendums. Moreover, most ballot-related searches employed rather neutral search terms. Nevertheless, a qualitative analysis of the search terms points to differences between different voting groups, particularly for the most prominent proposal around a Covid-19 law. The study provides interesting insight into how citizens search for information online during national referendum campaigns

Googling Referendum Campaigns: Analyzing Online Search Patterns Regarding Swiss Direct-Democratic Votes

In direct democracies, voters are faced with considerable information demands. Although search engines are an important gateway to political information, it is still unclear what role they play in citizens’ information behavior regarding referendum campaigns. Moreover, few studies have examined the search terms that citizens use when searching for political information and the potential “user-input biases” in this regard. Therefore, we investigate to what extent citizens search online for information about upcoming referendums and what differences emerge between proponents, opponents, and non-voters regarding the search terms they used and the results they visited, related to three national ballot proposals voted on in Switzerland on November 28, 2021. The study combines cross-sectional survey data with longitudinal digital trace data containing participants’ Google Search histories obtained through data donations. Our findings show that participants rarely used Google to search for information about upcoming referendums. Moreover, most ballot-related searches employed rather neutral search terms. Nevertheless, a qualitative analysis of the search terms points to differences between different voting groups, particularly for the most prominent proposal around a Covid-19 law. The study provides interesting insight into how citizens search for information online during national referendum campaigns

Meta-analysis of diffusion tensor imaging studies shows altered fractional anisotropy occurring in distinct brain areas in association with depression

Fractional anisotropy anomalies occurring in the white matter tracts in the brains of depressed patients may reflect microstructural changes underlying the pathophysiology of this disorder. We conducted a meta-analysis of fractional anisotropy abnormalities occurring in major depressive disorder using voxel-based diffusion tensor imaging studies. Using the Embase, PubMed and Google Scholar databases, 89 relevant data sets were identified, of which 7 (including 188 patients with major depressive disorder and 221 healthy controls) met our inclusion criteria. Authors were contacted to retrieve any additional data required. Coordinates were extracted from clusters of significant white matter fractional anisotropy differences between patients and controls. Relevant demographic, clinical and methodological variables were extracted from each study or obtained directly from authors. The meta-analysis was carried out using Signed Differential Mapping. Patients with depression showed decreased white matter fractional anisotropy values in the superior longitudinal fasciculus and increased fractional anisotropy values in the fronto-occipital fasciculus compared to controls. Using quartile and jackknife sensitivity analysis, we found that reduced fractional anisotropy in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus was very stable, with increases in the right fronto-occipital fasciculus driven by just one study. In conclusion, our meta-analysis revealed a significant reduction in fractional anisotropy values in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus, which may ultimately play an important role in the pathology of depression

Longitudinal Analysis of Android Ad Library Permissions

This paper investigates changes over time in the behavior of Android ad libraries. Taking a sample of 100,000 apps, we extract and classify the ad libraries. By considering the release dates of the applications that use a specific ad library version, we estimate the release date for the library, and thus build a chronological map of the permissions used by various ad libraries over time. We find that the use of most permissions has increased over the last several years, and that more libraries are able to use permissions that pose particular risks to user privacy and security.Comment: Most 201

Quitting the Boss? The Role of Manager Influence Tactics and Employee Emotional Engagement in Voluntary Turnover

Employees commonly cite their managers’ behavior as the primary reason for quitting their jobs. We sought to extend turnover research by investigating whether two commonly used influence tactics by managers affect their employees’ voluntary turnover and whether employees’ emotional engagement and job satisfaction mediate this relationship. We tested our hypotheses using survey data collected at two time points from a sample of financial services directors and objective lagged turnover data. Using multilevel path modeling, we found that managers’ use of pressure and inspirational appeals had opposite effects on employee voluntary turnover and that employees’ emotional engagement was a significant and unique mediating mechanism even when job satisfaction, the traditional attitudinal predictor of turnover, was also included in the path model. Our findings contribute to turnover research by demonstrating a relationship between specific managerial behaviors and employee turnover and shed light on a key mediating mechanism that explains these effects

Search Rank Fraud De-Anonymization in Online Systems

We introduce the fraud de-anonymization problem, that goes beyond fraud detection, to unmask the human masterminds responsible for posting search rank fraud in online systems. We collect and study search rank fraud data from Upwork, and survey the capabilities and behaviors of 58 search rank fraudsters recruited from 6 crowdsourcing sites. We propose Dolos, a fraud de-anonymization system that leverages traits and behaviors extracted from these studies, to attribute detected fraud to crowdsourcing site fraudsters, thus to real identities and bank accounts. We introduce MCDense, a min-cut dense component detection algorithm to uncover groups of user accounts controlled by different fraudsters, and leverage stylometry and deep learning to attribute them to crowdsourcing site profiles. Dolos correctly identified the owners of 95% of fraudster-controlled communities, and uncovered fraudsters who promoted as many as 97.5% of fraud apps we collected from Google Play. When evaluated on 13,087 apps (820,760 reviews), which we monitored over more than 6 months, Dolos identified 1,056 apps with suspicious reviewer groups. We report orthogonal evidence of their fraud, including fraud duplicates and fraud re-posts.Comment: The 29Th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media, July 201