Emotional Attitudes of Chinese Citizens on Social Distancing During the COVID-19 Outbreak: Analysis of Social Media Data (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, imposed citywide lockdown measures on 23 January 2020. Neighboring cities in the Hubei province followed suit with the government enforcing social distancing measures to restrict the spread of the disease throughout the province. Few studies have examined the emotional attitudes of citizens on social media platforms towards the imposed social distancing measures, and the factors that affected their emotions. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is twofold. First, we detect the emotional attitudes of different groups of Sina Weibo users towards the social distancing measures imposed by the Peoples Government of Hubei Province. Second, we study the influencing factors of their emotions as well as the impact of imposed measures on users' emotions. METHODS Sina Weibo, one of China's largest social media platforms, was chosen as the primary data source. Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory (Bi-LSTM) was used to analyze users' emotions, while logistic regression analysis was employed to explore the influence of independent variables on users' emotions, such as age and spatial locations. Further, the moderating effects of social distancing measures on the relationship between user characteristics and users' emotions are discussed through the interaction effects between the measures and independent variables. RESULTS We identified six topics of discussion, including delaying the resumption of work and school, travel restrictions, traffic restrictions, extending the Lunar New Year holiday, closing public spaces, and community containment. First, the main emotions shown by citizens were negative, including anger and fear. Women were observed to hold stronger and more positive emotions than men. Users located in the Hubei Province showed the highest amount of negative emotions in Mainland China. In addition, those who lived in emigrant provinces, or those with a high number of follows and / or posts, were inclined to express positive emotions. Older users and those with more fans were inclined to be neutral, while users in the Hubei Province, and with a longer registration time on the Sina Weibo platform, were more likely to express negative emotions. Further, different social distancing measures had unalike moderating effects on the relationship between user characteristics and users' emotions. CONCLUSIONS This study identified the emotional attitudes of Sina Weibo users towards the social distancing measures imposed by the Peoples Government of Hubei Province, and determined the characteristics that affect users' emotions, including the factor of social distancing measures. The results provide government agencies with better understanding of Internet users opinions on related events, and provide a reference point for social media platforms to push targeted content.