Much of the research in online moderation focuses on punitive actions. However, emerging research has shown that positive reinforcement is effective at encouraging desirable behavior on online platforms. We extend this research by studying the "creator heart" feature on YouTube, quantifying their primary effects on comments that receive hearts and on videos where hearts have been given. We find that creator hearts increased the visibility of comments, and increased the amount of positive engagement they received from other users. We also find that the presence of a creator hearted comment soon after a video is published can incentivize viewers to comment, increasing the total engagement with the video over time. We discuss the potential for creators to use hearts to shape behavior in their communities by highlighting, rewarding, and incentivizing desirable behaviors from users. We discuss avenues for extending our study to understanding positive signals from moderators on other platforms.

翻译：在线内容审核研究多聚焦于惩罚性措施。然而，新兴研究表明，正向强化能有效鼓励在线平台上的期望行为。本研究通过分析YouTube平台的"创作者红心"功能，量化其对获得红心的评论及发布红心的视频的主要影响。我们发现，创作者红心提升了评论的可见性，并增加了其他用户对其的正向互动量。同时，视频发布后若短时间内出现被创作者红心的评论，能激励观众参与评论，从而随时间推移提升视频整体的互动量。我们探讨了创作者通过红心标记、奖励及激励用户期望行为来塑造社群行为模式的可能性，并提出将研究拓展至理解其他平台审核员使用正向信号机制的可行路径。