Who is bragging more online? A large scale analysis of bragging in social media

TL;DR

The paper addresses how bragging manifests on a large scale in social media by constructing a longitudinal, U.S.-focused Twitter dataset of over 1 million original posts from 2,685 users across ten years. It introduces a bragging classifier based on a BERTweet-LIWC fusion model trained on annotated data, and computes time-normalized bragging prevalence to compare user groups. Key findings include a slow decline in bragging over time, with higher propensity among younger, more educated, and more popular users, and a nuanced linguistic analysis linking bragging themes to user traits. This work advances understanding of online self-presentation, offers a scalable method to quantify bragging, and provides insights with implications for online reputation, social dynamics, and platform design.

Abstract

Bragging is the act of uttering statements that are likely to be positively viewed by others and it is extensively employed in human communication with the aim to build a positive self-image of oneself. Social media is a natural platform for users to employ bragging in order to gain admiration, respect, attention and followers from their audiences. Yet, little is known about the scale of bragging online and its characteristics. This paper employs computational sociolinguistics methods to conduct the first large scale study of bragging behavior on Twitter (U.S.) by focusing on its overall prevalence, temporal dynamics and impact of demographic factors. Our study shows that the prevalence of bragging decreases over time within the same population of users. In addition, younger, more educated and popular users in the U.S. are more likely to brag. Finally, we conduct an extensive linguistics analysis to unveil specific bragging themes associated with different user traits.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Bragging percentage by year and month.
• Figure 2: Histograms of user socio-demographic traits and popularity.