A social media network analysis of trypophobia communication

Abstract

Trypophobia has attracted scientific attention in recent years. Few related studies have recruited participants using online methods, and even less is known about health communication in an environment where trypophobia was first widely discussed (i.e., the Internet). This study describes communication patterns in a Facebook group for trypophobia by detecting frequent topics, top contributors, and their discourses. We identified key commenters and performed word frequency analysis, word co-occurrence analysis, topic modeling, and content analysis. Impactful users posted and replied more often when discussing peer-reviewed science. Triggering content was actively removed by the group administrators. A wide variety of triggers not discussed in trypophobia-related literature were frequently mentioned. However, there was a lack of discussion on peer-reviewed treatments. The combination of a few expert and many supportive amateur gatekeepers willing to understand trypophobia, along with active monitoring by administrators, might contribute to in-group trust and the sharing of peer-reviewed science by top users of the trypophobia Facebook group.

The blessing and curse of “no strings attached”: An automated literature analysis of psychological health and non-attachmental work in the digitalization era

“…Topic modeling has become a well-established method for the analysis of public narratives, scientific debates, and academic literature reviews [e.g. [77][78][79][80], also with respect to mental health research [e.g. 81,82].…”