In Simple Words
Think of a busy group text thread where someone asks a question. A reply sent 5 messages later is clearly answering that question, whereas a reply sent 500 messages later was posted long after the original topic was forgotten.
Research question
Determining social network connections in online chat platforms requires bounding response times to ensure subsequent messages reflect genuine peer feedback rather than coincidental posting.
Participants
N = 1,016 active Milestone 0 completers across 44 interaction clusters in virtual treatment arms.
Study Design
Parametric evaluation of two-stage IV peer effect coefficients across maximum communication lags ranging from $\tau = 1$ to $\tau = 100$ intermediate channel postings.
Results
Peer effect estimates for submission and quality stabilize when the communication lag threshold reaches $\tau \ge 80$ intermediate sentences, converging directly to the unbounded benchmark ($\tau = \infty$, $\beta = 0.533, p < 0.01$ for submission; $\beta = 0.537, p < 0.01$ for extensive quality).
Takeaway
Set communication lag parameters based on intermediate message count ($\tau \ge 80$) rather than elapsed clock time when constructing adjacency matrices from online chat logs.