Attention Asymmetry in AI Layoff Discourse on X: A Computational Analysis of Capital vs Labour Amplification
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Computer Science > Computation and Language
arXiv:2605.29367 (cs)
[Submitted on 28 May 2026]
Title:Attention Asymmetry in AI Layoff Discourse on X: A Computational Analysis of Capital vs Labour Amplification
Authors:Joy Bose
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Abstract:When workers lose jobs to AI-driven restructuring, two very different conversations happen on X (formerly Twitter) at the same time. Tech executives and AI researchers talk about productivity, transformation, and opportunity. Laid-off workers and labour critics talk about job loss, uncertainty, and fear. This paper asks a simple question: which conversation gets more reach? We report three studies using two collection methods and 763 tweets from 20 named public accounts. Study 1 used keyword-based collection (n=392) and found no significant difference between corpora (p=0.891), revealing that keyword search is too noisy for this task. Study 2 used account-based collection (n=96) and found a 3.12x mean amplification advantage for capital discourse over labour discourse (p=0.000003, Cohen's d=0.555). Study 3 combined both methods (n=763) and confirmed the finding at 4.18x mean and 10.77x median amplification ratio (p<0.000001). Critically, after normalising for follower count, the asymmetry persists at 2.69x (p=0.000009, Cohen's d=0.491), demonstrating that the effect is not simply a consequence of capital accounts having larger audiences. The finding is robust across all tested amplification metric weightings. We introduce the Amplification Ratio and Amplification Normalisation Index as simple metrics for measuring platform-level discourse inequality. A cross-platform replication on Reddit (n=647 posts) did not replicate the finding, suggesting the asymmetry may be specific to X's account-based amplification architecture. We discuss the methodological implications for cross-platform discourse analysis.
| Comments: | 18 pages, 3 figures, 9 tables |
| Subjects: | Computation and Language (cs.CL); Computers and Society (cs.CY); Social and Information Networks (cs.SI) |
| ACM classes: | H.3.3; H.4.m; J.4; K.4.m; I.2.7 |
| Cite as: | arXiv:2605.29367 [cs.CL] |
| (or arXiv:2605.29367v1 [cs.CL] for this version) | |
| https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.29367
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
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