网络突发事件中的负性偏向:产生与表现

Negativity bias in emergent online events:Occurrence and manifestation

在网络突发事件的产生和传播中,人们往往更关注负面信息的加工和传递,存在负性偏向。本研究依据事件酝酿、爆发、蔓延阶段的特征,构建心理机制模型,通过3项研究分别检验了信息内容、信息加工和信息传递中负性偏向的产生和发展。结果表明,负性偏向不仅产生于网络突发事件的源头语篇中,还产生于个体信息加工和人际信息传递过程,表现为个体对负性词汇更好的记忆效果及更高的辨别力,以及网民间对负性信息的选择性传递和对模糊信息的负性解读。研究有利于认识网络突发事件信息传播规律,科学应对舆情危机,创新网络治理。

Nowadays,emergent online events have occurred frequently,because of the social transition and the development of social media.In the past,most of the research on emergent online events were theoretical analysis,and less attention was paid to the psychological mechanisms.The current research proposes that negativity bias,a common psychological phenomenon in human decision-making,is an important mechanism behind the network emergency and its propagation.In order to explore the occurrence and performance of negativity bias in emergent online events,three theoretical hypotheses were tested by three studies under the guidance of a theoretical model.Study 1 aimed to explore the information content bias in the source texts of emergent online events.40 source texts of emergent online events in the period from 2016 to 2019 were collected through Baidu,Sina,Tencent and other major media platforms.The Chinese psychoanalysis System TextMind 3.0 was used to analyze the texts.In Study 2,a recognition memory experiment was conducted to explore the information processing bias of the source texts of emergent online events.48 participants completed the single-factor(word nature:positive,neutral and negative)within-subjects experiment.The reading materials used in the experiment are from the corpus set up in Study 1.Positive,neutral and negative words were selected from the text by online word segmentation tool in advance,and the subjects were asked to recall whether the words appeared in the article in the subsequent memory experiment.Study 3 aimed to explore the transmission bias in the dynamic propagation of emergent online events.One hundred and twenty participants(Thirty transmission chains)took part in the transmission experiment.Word nature was a within-subjects variable,which can be divided into three levels:positive,neutral and negative.Intergenerational transmission was a between-subjects variable including four generations.Study 1 indicated that although all negative words did not dominate in the source texts of emergent online events,there are more negative words in the source texts of emergent online events than that of hot network events.Study 2 showed that the recognition accuracy of negative words was higher than that of positive words and neutral words.The analysis based on signal detection theory showed that the participants had higher discrimination and stricter decision-making criteria for negative words than positive and neutral words.Therefore,the negativity bias of the participants was mainly reflected in the fact that they were more likely to recognize negative words that are not in the text.Study 3 indicated that the survival rate of negative events was higher than that of positive events and neutral events,and that of positive events was higher than that of neutral events.The probability of negative interpretation of neutral events was higher than that of positive interpretation.These results supported the negative advantages in the process of emergency transmission.The current study investigated the occurrence and manifestation of negativity bias,an important psychological function formed in the process of human evolution,during the brewing,breaking out,and spreading process of network emergency.That is,the negativity bias did not only originate from the source texts of emergent online events but also from the process of individual information processing and interpersonal information transmission.This is manifested in the higher recognition accuracy,higher discrimination,sightly tight decision-making criteria for negative words,the higher survival rate of negative events,as well as negative resolution of ambiguous events.This research is conducive to understanding the law of information dissemination of emergent online events,scientific response to the crisis of public opinion,and innovative network governance.