Does negatively toned language use on social media lead to attitude polarization?

作者:

Highlights:

• Research on attitude polarization has typically focused on content or congeniality.

• This paper looks at language sentiment as a precursor of polarization.

• 4 million tweets on two controversial topics were examined via sentiment analysis.

• Negative sentiment of a person's own tweets increased polarization.

• Negative sentiment of tweets from a person's friends reduced polarization.

摘要

•Research on attitude polarization has typically focused on content or congeniality.•This paper looks at language sentiment as a precursor of polarization.•4 million tweets on two controversial topics were examined via sentiment analysis.•Negative sentiment of a person's own tweets increased polarization.•Negative sentiment of tweets from a person's friends reduced polarization.

论文关键词:Echo chamber,Attitudes,Attitude strength,Social media,Sentiment analysis,Negativity bias

论文评审过程:Received 3 April 2020, Revised 2 December 2020, Accepted 7 December 2020, Available online 11 December 2020, Version of Record 16 December 2020.

论文官网地址:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106663