Corona and value change. The role of social media and emotional contagion

Abstract

People share their emotions on social media and evidence suggests that in times of crisis people are especially motivated to post emotional content. The current Coronavirus pandemic is such a crisis. The online sharing of emotional content during the Coronavirus crisis may contribute to societal value change. Emotion sharing via social media could lead to emotional contagion which in turn could facilitate an emotional climate in a society. In turn, the emotional climate of a society can influence society's value structure. The emotions that spread in the current Coronavirus crisis are predominantly negative, which could result in a negative emotional climate. Based on the dynamic relations of values to each other and the way that emotions relate to values, a negative emotional climate can contribute to societal value change towards values related to security preservation and threat avoidance. As a consequence, a negative emotional climate and the shift in values could lead to a change in political attitudes that has implications for rights, freedom, privacy and moral progress. Considering the impact of social media in terms of emotional contagion and a longer-lasting value change is an important perspective in thinking about the ethical long-term impact of social media technology.

Social Bots’ Sentiment Engagement in Health Emergencies: A Topic-Based Analysis of the COVID-19 Pandemic Discussions on Twitter

“…In public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the increasing number of infected people and rising mortality elicited strong negative emotions such as anxiety, anger, and sadness in the public [ 5 , 27 ]. Prevention measures, such as quarantine and travel bans, limited individuals’ freedom, thus further raising people’s negative emotions [ 28 , 29 ]. Health-unrelated factors like the economic and political impact, media coverage, and government responses also served as drivers of expressions of emotion [ 30 , 31 ].…”

“…Recent studies on emotions expressed on social media in the COVID-19 pandemic in various countries found negative emotions like depression, anxiety, fear, and anger increased and became more prevalent [ 4 , 11 , 38 , 39 ]. Further, since the impacts of geographical boundaries and offline interpersonal circles are attenuated on social media, emotions can be shared more easily and affect others’ emotions more widely, gradually forming a homogeneous emotional state, the process of which is termed “emotion contagion” [ 29 , 40 ].…”

“…It has been found that although people on social media cannot encounter non-verbal cues conveying emotions, which are common in face-to-face communication, emotion contagion could still occur via online emotional content [ 6 , 7 , 31 , 44 ]. Plus, on social media, the scope of people’s interactions is larger than their social circles in reality [ 29 ]. It should also be noted that now, on social media, not only does emotion contagion take place in human-human interactions, but also in human-robot interactions [ 45 ].…”

“…Complex factors affect emotion contagion on social media. Firstly, the valence of the content; although the academia has not reached consensus on whether positive or negative contents can be shared more on social media, it is clear that emotional content travels faster than non-emotional content [ 29 ]. Furthermore, specific to different types of emotions, some emotions in social media messages are more likely to arouse public sharing behaviors than others, such as anger [ 46 ].…”

“…Furthermore, specific to different types of emotions, some emotions in social media messages are more likely to arouse public sharing behaviors than others, such as anger [ 46 ]. Contagion of negative emotions, like anger, sadness, and anxiety, on social media may have been accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 29 ]. For example, the “Purell panic”, stating that out of fear of being infected by the virus, people would rush to buy Purell irrationally, in the coronavirus crisis is a convincing example [ 47 ].…”