社交媒体网络情感传染及线索影响机制的实证分析

Empirical Analysis of Emotional Contagion and Influence Mechanism of Clues on Social Media

情感传染是指人们在接触他人的情感表达后导致他们自己的情感表达变得与他人更为相似的过程。情感传染在社交媒体情境下十分常见。基于网络平台特点和情感传染发生的机制,以线索研究路径和信息瀑布理论为主要依据,抓取“家在深圳”网络社区中关于深圳房价话题的主帖2955条和跟帖136140条,采用情感分析方法,聚焦社交媒体上各类可见的线索进行研究,结果发现:其一,网络情感传染是强烈存在的;其二,很大程度上,网络情绪是可以被操控的,情绪点燃和传染与话题属性、意见领袖的影响力和用户参与度紧密相关;其三,网络社区上各类可见线索(内容和非内容)是影响其他网民参与和情感极性表达的重要因素,社交媒体上易于形成网络情感两极化和优势情感共识现象。这一研究成果在理论上拓展了网络线索路径研究的解释范畴,有助于深刻理解网络情感传染并非是无意识的而是需要意识参与的过程,以及为相关网络监管部门如何正确对待网络情感和传染提供了学理基础。

Emotional contagion refers to the process in which people become more similar to others in emotional expression after being exposed to other people's emotional expression.This is quite common in social media.Based on the characteristics of the network platform,the mechanism of emotional contagion,the clue research approaches,and information cascades theory,the author of this paper chooses 2955 posts and 136140 comments on the housing price issue in the online community“Home in Shenzhen”,using emotional analysis to study various kinds of visible clues on social media.The findings are as follows.First,there is heavy presence of emotional contagion on the network.Secondly,online emotions can,to a large extent,be manipulated.Emotional outburst and contagion are closely related to the attributes of topics,influence of opinion leaders,and user participation.Third,all kinds of visible clues(content and non-content)in online communities are important factors affecting other netizens’participation and emotional polarity expression.Social media is prone to polarization of online emotions and consensus of dominant emotion.The research results theoretically expand the interpretation scope of the network clue path research,help people deeply understand the network emotion contagion is not an unconscious but conscious participation process,and provide theoretic basis for relevant network regulatory authorities to properly handle the network emotion and contagion.