Spread of tweets in climate discussions: A case study of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize announcement

Figures & Tables

	Feature	Coding Rule
Universal (Style)	Mocking	Does the tweet make fun of an entity at its expense? (yes/no)
Universal (Style)	Incivility	Does the tweet contain uncivil language? (yes/no)

Universal (Content)	Call to Action	Does the tweet call on others to behave in a certain way? (yes/no)
	Ingroup Praise	Does the tweet speak of the ingroup in a positive manner? (yes/no)
	Outgroup Criticism	Does the tweet speak of the outgroup in a negative manner? (yes/no)
	Science	Does the tweet invoke “science” or “facts” as support? (yes/no)
	Hashtags^a	Machine extracted count of hashtags used in the tweet.
	Mentions^a	Machine extracted count of users mentioned in the tweet.

Activists	Solutions	Does the tweet present solutions to addressing climate change? (yes/no)
Activists	Movement	Does the tweet emphasise the strength of the pro-climate movement? (yes/no)

Sceptics	Anti-international	Does the tweet speak negatively of international organisations? (yes/no)
	Hypocrisy	Does the tweet claim that supporters are hypocritical or inconsistent? (yes/no)
	Conspiracy	Does the tweet claim that climate policy is a front for other agendas? (yes/no)

	Explanatory variable	Predicted change in virality (%)
Activist group (n = 261)	Mocking	0.0
	Call to Action	0.0
	Ingroup Praise	0.9
	Outgroup Criticism	1.5
	Science	−2.7
	Movement	12.3
	Solution	0.0
	Hashtags	0.5
	Mentions	1.7
	Authors	−32.3∼46.4

Sceptic group (n = 128)	Mocking	0.0
	Incivility	16.2
	Call to Action	14.5
	Ingroup Praise	0.0
	Outgroup Criticism	−7.9
	Science	0.0
	Anti-international	0.0
	Hypocrisy	10.1
	Conspiracy	0.0
	Hashtags	1.6
	Mentions	1.1
	Authors	−27.3∼26.5

User	Most-viral tweet	Least-viral tweet
S1^a	Virality score: 0.190[Incivility]I learned basic skills like sewing, cooking, woodwork, automobiles, and metalwork in high school home economics and shop classes :)Kids are now taught BS Socialism and Fake Climate Change... :/KAG	Virality score: 0.037[Mocking]Thanks to California banning Plastic Straws... The Climate is becoming much better... It's only 45 today when it would have been 46... It's working... yay...
S2^a	Virality score: 0.118[Call to Action]Just one year ago, no political party would say: - Climate crisis is a hoax - Immigration is too high - Corporate welfare and supply management must be eliminated - The budget can be balanced within two years PPC is changing the conversation and bringing change along with it.#VotePPC	Virality score: 0.044[Conspiracy, Outgroup Criticism]The network of globalist elites are all supporting each other. They promote fake climate change to scare people into submission. They are liars.
S3^a	Virality score: 0.113[Hypocrisy, Outgroup Criticism]Greens Sarah Hanson-Young: The government needs to declare a climate emergency!Also Sarah Hanson-Young: I have taken 58 flights this year with taxpayer money.Do as I say, not do as I do.[image]	Virality score: 0.072[Outgroup Criticism]When will the Victoria police bill all these climate change protestors?[link]

User	Most-viral tweet	Least-viral tweet
A1	Virality score: 0.155[Movement]LOOK AT ALL THOSE PEOPLE marching in Alberta to demand #climateaction!Even here people want action on the #ClimateEmergency.Denying our situation doesn’t help.#ActOnClimate#ClimateStrike #FridaysforFutures #cdn-poli #climate #energy #elxn43 @GretaT-hunberg. Via @vineshpratap [video]	Virality score: 0.035[Science, Call to Action]Air pollution is now more deadly than war, smoking and TB. It kills 7 million people every year.We have solutions to keep our communities safe and deal with the #climate crisis.Let's implement them. #GreenNewDeal #AirPollution #ClimateChange #energy #tech #PanelsNotPipelines [video]
A2^a	Virality score: 0.125[Ingroup Praise, Outgroup Criticism]Attacks on Thunberg is motivated by one thing. She is intelligent, eloquent, compassionate, and young. She has scared some hateful and reactionary so-called ‘grown ups’, #ActOnClimate #ClimateCrisis [link]	Virality score: 0.035[Science]Climate change has rapidly and dramatically affected the arctic region. Even just ten years ago it was impossible for container ships to go through the Northern Sea Route. [link]