User features and gendered patterns in repeat online advice-seeking behavior
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: There is limited understanding of the user-level variables related to the common activity of repeat advice-seeking on virtual communities. Gender is of particular interest; past studies indicate men participate less on support forums. Social role theory provides descriptions of the interplay between gender roles and help-seeking, but these have not been quantified in online advice-seeking. We conduct a computational linguistic analysis on a year-long dataset of 17896 users on Reddit’s r/relationships, comparing the demographics, linguistic choices, and user histories of repeat and non-repeat advice-seekers self-identifying as male or female. We find strong evidence of gendered behavior, with users largely behaving more similarly to their identified gender. Female users are more likely to be repeat advice-seekers and to engage in advice-giving alongside their future advice-seeking attempts. There are otherwise no significant differences between the proportions of male and female users who return solely to seek advice. Female users are also more likely to write longer and more informally, seeking advice on domestic issues and communication. Male users are more focused on dating and past partners. Our findings shed light on the characteristics of a possibly vulnerable user population and set the foundation for future investigations on the influence of offline social roles on online help-seeking. This was a working paper of a now-published paper at the Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media (DOI: 10.51685/jqd.2025.008). The paper thus has gone through multiple rounds of revision since this preprint. Please refer to the final peer-reviewed paper: Kang, B., Ho, M.-H. R., & Jaidka, K. (2025). User features and gendered patterns in repeat online advice-seeking behavior. Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media, 5. https://doi.org/10.51685/jqd.2025.008
Authors: Bianca Kang, Moon-Ho Ringo Ho, Kokil Jaidka
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Gender equality
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4408848925