Identifiability as an “Antidote”: Exploring Emotional Contagion and the Role of Anonymity in Twitter Discussions on Misinformation

Chen (Crystal) Chen, Hao Yuan, Mike Z. Yao

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Misinformation carries both distorted facts and sophisticated emotional signals. Comparing to facts that could be labeled as true or false, we are more concerned about contaminative negative emotions transferring digitally among users. In this study, we explored an emotional contagion effect among misinformation discussion participants on Twitter. We analyzed the sentiment of 573 tweets in 192 discussion threads. Our result revealed that highly emotional tweets do not have a universal effect on the online discussions, but it affects those individuals with limited social and personal identity cues (i.e., being anonymous). We found that anonymous members of the online discussion are more susceptible to emotional contagions than those are not. We also suggest coping strategies that protect social media users’ emotional well-being during the era COVID-19.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationSocial Computing and Social Media
Subtitle of host publicationExperience Design and Social Network Analysis - 13th International Conference, SCSM 2021, Held as Part of the 23rd HCI International Conference, HCII 2021, Proceedings
EditorsGabriele Meiselwitz
PublisherSpringer
Pages240-252
Number of pages13
ISBN (Print)9783030776251
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021
Event13th International Conference on Social Computing and Social Media, SCSM 2021, held as part of the 23rd International Conference, HCI International 2021 - Virtual, Online
Duration: Jul 24 2021Jul 29 2021

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume12774 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference13th International Conference on Social Computing and Social Media, SCSM 2021, held as part of the 23rd International Conference, HCI International 2021
CityVirtual, Online
Period7/24/217/29/21

Keywords

  • Anonymity
  • Emotion contagion
  • Sentiment analysis
  • SIDE
  • COVID-19

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • Computer Science(all)

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