About

Diane Felmlee is a Professor of Sociology and a Graduate Faculty member at Pennsylvania State University. She is also affiliated with the Center for Social Data Analytics (C-SoDA). Her research focuses on social data analytics, and she is involved in interdisciplinary work that combines sociology with data-driven approaches. As a faculty affiliate of C-SoDA, she contributes to the advancement of social data analytics through her academic and research activities. Her contact information includes her email dhf12@psu.edu and her office is located at 302 Pond Laboratory, University Park, PA 16802.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Social psychology
• Psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Law
• Public relations
• Psychoanalysis
• Mathematics
• Criminology

Selected publications

• Social Networks and Personal Relationships

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2026-02-09

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Is There a Sexual Stereotype Linking Casual Sex with Low Self-Esteem?

  Sexuality & Culture · 2025-03-21

  articleOpen access

  An experimental vignette study was conducted to examine the pervasiveness of sexual stereotypes that women (although not men) who engage in casual sex are perceived to have lower self-esteem–and are considered to be less desirable for a relationship–than those who do not engage in casual sex. In a 2 × 2 experimental design, we embedded information about the recent relationship history (two casual sexual relationships vs. two committed sexual relationships) in a hypothetical online dating profile, and also manipulated the profile author’s gender. The participants (N = 318, obtained from two college settings and through Prolific) forecasted that an online profile statement that referred to casual sexual partners would lead to less overall attraction (by other users) than a statement that referred to committed relationships. However, this difference was found regardless of the author’s gender (i.e., no evidence was found for a double standard). Furthermore, participants did not stereotype the hypothetical woman (or man) as having lower self-esteem if they had casual sex partners. The author’s sexual history also did not affect the participants’ ratings of their desirability as a partner, with the exception that the author who had prior casual sexual partners was assumed to be more attractive for a short-term relationship than the author with prior committed sexual partners, and regardless of the author’s gender. The findings are discussed in the contexts of first impressions made in real-world settings, waning double standards in a society of increased egalitarianism, and changing cultural, sexual scripts.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Peer Context of Adolescent Weapon Carrying in a High School Friendship Network

  Journal of School Violence · 2025-07-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Networks of Negativity: Gaining Attention Through Cyberbullying

  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · 2024-12-20

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Cyberbullying entails multiple, problematic consequences for its victims. However, little is known about the factors that influence the dispersion of these damaging messages. Drawing on theories of social interaction, we argue that perpetrators disseminate messages containing sexist and racist slurs that reinforce stereotypical, social norms to enhance their online visibility. We collected cross-sectional and longitudinal samples of tweets (N = 539,558 and 248,497, respectively) that included either gender or Asian slurs. We find that tweets containing gender or Asian slurs that were more negative in sentiment had a significantly higher number of retweets than more positive tweets, thereby heightening a user's online presence and the reach of their content. Two historical events unfolded during our study-the onset of COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd by a police officer. Tweet negativity increased following both events. Our findings demonstrate the capacity of aggressive tweets to generate wide-ranging networks, a process which is exacerbated further by public crises. Results suggest that the practice of sending such messages is strategic. Perpetrators likely engage in cyberbullying, consciously or not, to increase their online attention. Moreover, this strategy appears to be successful.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Sexual Double Standard and Adolescent Stigma: A Sociometric and Comparative Approach

  The Journal of Sex Research · 2024-06-06 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access

  = 14.75). Drawing on script theory and the key concept of social stigma, this study examined associations between self-reported sexual partnerships and three measures of peer preference: (1) received friendship nominations, (2) peer dislike nominations, and (3) perceived popularity. Results from ordinary least squares regressions support the traditional double standard, indicating that girls who report a higher number of self-reported sexual partners receive fewer friendships and more peer dislike nominations than boys reporting similar numbers of sexual partners. Sexual partnerships are positively associated with boys' and girls' perceived popularity. Using sociometric measures of peer stigma, we found evidence of a traditional sexual double standard in an adolescent sample from a liberal and gender egalitarian Western democracy, while also pointing to the potential status rewards associated with adolescent sexual behavior.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Bipartite Network Analysis of Terrorism in Nigeria

  Crime & Delinquency · 2024-09-10 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Nigeria is home to a variety of terror groups, some of which receive little scholarly or media attention, but whose violent attacks cause significant casualties and instability. This analysis uses a bipartite network approach to examine terror groups in Nigeria between 2009 and 2019. We capture substantial variation among terrorist groups by state, target type and attack mode, and consider “unknown” terrorist offenders. Although Boko Haram is the dominant terrorist group, the Fulani extremists, IPOB, and others, are also prominent, with MEND especially active against oil infrastructure and in the Niger Delta region. This research finds that a bipartite network approach is effective for providing a more comprehensive understanding of terrorism dynamics, which is essential for effective counterterrorism policy and analysis.

  PublisherDOI

• Romance matters: The role of dating in adolescents’ friendship beginnings and endings

  Journal of Social and Personal Relationships · 2023-12-23 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  We examined the influence of romantic relationships on the formation and dissolution of adolescent friendships with a longitudinal network sample (N = 133) from age 14 to 15. Using a dynamic, network statistical model (i.e., STERGM), we found that engagement in a romantic relationship shaped friendship homophily over time, with daters becoming friends with other daters, and singles forming friendships with other singles. Partnered adolescents were not more likely than those who were unattached to dissolve their friendships; however, they were significantly less prone to form new friendships over time. Results broaden our understanding of the role of romantic relationships in youth friendships by showing that romantic involvement deters friendship initiation, but when friendships do form, they tend to be among those who are similarly dating. Our study highlights the significance of adopting a dynamic, social network perspective to examine both the formation and breakup of friendship transitions during this pivotal stage of life.

  PublisherDOI

• Debating stereotypes: Online reactions to the vice-presidential debate of 2020

  PLoS ONE · 2023-01-25 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The 2020 Vice-Presidential debate afforded the opportunity to examine online reactions toward a woman of color, Kamala Harris, and a white man, Mike Pence, as they vied for the same position. We collected tweets from the Twitter API related to Harris and Pence, mainly using neutral hashtags. We examined keywords for gender and race slurs and conducted a multivariate analysis of tweet sentiment. Gender and racial slurs surface in both Harris and Pence datasets, showcasing the insidious nature of sexist and racist stereotypes that seep into online conversations regarding a high-status job debate. As anticipated, tweets regarding Harris contained a higher proportion of racist and sexist curse words, highlighting greater levels of harassment and "intersectional," multi-ethnic/gender attacks. Racial insults targeting Blacks or Asians were more negative than those associated with Whites. Unexpectedly, tweets related to Harris were more positive in average sentiment than those regarding Pence. Yet, there were significantly more retweets, and more negativity of retweets, relating to Harris than to Pence, underscoring the relatively widespread broadcasting of derogatory messages about Harris. Overall, we found that harassing messages toward the candidates reinforced traditional race and gender stereotypes and bolstered the status of those who posted negative content by attaining more retweets. Harassers routinely invoked well-worn, stereotypical insults in their attacks, especially when targeting a multiracial woman.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Changing contexts: A quasi-experiment examining adolescent delinquency and the transition to high school

  CrimRxiv · 2022-10-17

  preprintOpen access

  A quasi-experiment examining adolescent delinquency and the transition to high school 2 .

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Reciprocity, transitivity, and skew: Comparing local structure in 40 positive and negative social networks  

  CrimRxiv · 2022-05-20 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• RAPID: A Quasi-Experimental Study of Corporate Policy Effects

  NSF · $72k · 2018–2019

Frequent coauthors

• Susan Sprecher

  Illinois State University

  20 shared

• Roger M. Whitaker

  Cardiff University

  13 shared

• Cassie McMillan

  Northeastern University

  13 shared

• Robert Faris

  University of California, Davis

  11 shared

• Liam D. Turner

  9 shared

• James R. Ashford

  7 shared

• Dinesh Verma

  IBM Research - Thomas J. Watson Research Center

  7 shared

• Alun Preece

  6 shared

Labs

• Social Data AnalyticsPI