The Truman Platform

The Truman platform is an open-source, complete social media simulation developed as part of a joint SML effort led by former SML post-doc Dominic DiFranzo. It creates a custom social media site on which every user, post, like, reply, notification, and interaction can be created, curated, and controlled by the research team. This social media simulation platform provides a controlled social media experience for participants.

Downloading The Truman Platform

Truman is freely available on a public GitHub repository. Other researchers can use Truman to create and administer their own experiments. See our project website for a detailed how-to guide on installing and using Truman for your study.

You can also read about our workshop hosted at ICWSM 2018 on bridging the lab and the field by using Truman to conduct social media experiments in a naturalistic environment. You can also check out demos of the simulations from studies that have used the Truman platform by clicking the “Demo Site” link next to its corresponding study.

If you have any questions about using the Truman platform or about running a study using Truman, please contact Dominic DiFranzo at djd219@lehigh.edu.

Publications

Zhao, P., Bazarova, N. N., DiFranzo, D., Hui, W., Kizilcec, & Margolin, D. (2024). Standing up to problematic content on social media: which objection strategies draw the audience’s approval? Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 29(1). (GitHub repository, Demo site)

Agha, Z., Park, J., Wan, R., Ali, N.S., Wang, Y., DiFranzo D., Badillo-Urquiola, K., & Wisniewski, P.J. (2024). Tricky vs. Transparent: Towards an Ecologically Valid and Safe Approach for Evaluating Online Safety Nudges for Teens. In Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’24).

Aghajari, Z., Baumer, E., Lazard, A., Dasgupta N., & DiFranzo, D. (2024). Investigating the Mechanisms by which Prevalent Online Community Behaviors Influence Responses to Misinformation: Do Perceived Norms Really Act as a Mediator? In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’23).

Aghajari, Z., Baumer, E., & DiFranzo, D. (2023). What’s the Norm Around Here? Individuals’ Responses Can Mitigate the Effects of Misinformation Prevalence in Shaping Perceptions of a Community. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’23). (GitHub repository, Demo site)

Bhandari, A., Ozanne, M., Bazarova, N. N., & DiFranzo, D. (2021). Do you care who flagged this post? Effects of moderator transparency on bystander behavior. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 26(5), 284-300. (GitHub repository, Demo site)

Masur, P., DiFranzo, D., & Bazarova, N. N. (2020) Behavioral contagion in social media: Effects of social norms, design interventions, and critical media literacy on self-disclosure. Presented at the 70th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Gold Cost, Australia. Top Paper for Communication and Technology Division. (GitHub repository, Demo site)

Taylor, S., DiFranzo, D., Choi, Y. H., Sannon, S., & Bazarova, N. N. (2019). Accountability and empathy by design: Encouraging bystander intervention to cyberbullying on social media. Proceedings of the ACM on Human Computer Interaction Journal (PACM CHI Journal), 3, 1-26. (GitHub repository, Demo site)

DiFranzo, D., Choi, Y.H., Purington, A., Taft, J.G., Whitlock, J., & Bazarova, N. N. (2019). Social Media TestDrive: Real-World social media education for the next generation. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’19). Glasgow, UK. (GitHub repository)

DiFranzo, D., Taylor, S. H., Kazerooni, F., Wherry, O. D., & Bazarova, N. N. (2018). Upstanding by Design: Bystander intervention in cyberbullying. In Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’18). (GitHub repository, Demo site)

DiFranzo, D. & Bazarova, N. N. (2018). The Truman Platform: Social media simulation for experimental research. Workshop paper presented at The 12th International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM ’18), Stanford, CA.