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Negative emotions boost user activity at BBC forum

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  • Chmiel, Anna
  • Sobkowicz, Pawel
  • Sienkiewicz, Julian
  • Paltoglou, Georgios
  • Buckley, Kevan
  • Thelwall, Mike
  • Hołyst, Janusz A.

Abstract

We present an empirical study of user activity in online BBC discussion forums, measured by the number of posts written by individual debaters and the average sentiment of these posts. Nearly 2.5 million posts from over 18 thousand users were investigated. Scale-free distributions were observed for activity in individual discussion threads as well as for overall activity. The number of unique users in a thread normalized by the thread length decays with thread length, suggesting that thread life is sustained by mutual discussions rather than by independent comments. Automatic sentiment analysis shows that most posts contain negative emotions and the most active users in individual threads express predominantly negative sentiments. It follows that the average emotion of longer threads is more negative and that threads can be sustained by negative comments. An agent-based computer simulation model has been used to reproduce several essential characteristics of the analyzed system. The model stresses the role of discussions between users, especially emotionally laden quarrels between supporters of opposite opinions, and represents many observed statistics of the forum.

Suggested Citation

  • Chmiel, Anna & Sobkowicz, Pawel & Sienkiewicz, Julian & Paltoglou, Georgios & Buckley, Kevan & Thelwall, Mike & Hołyst, Janusz A., 2011. "Negative emotions boost user activity at BBC forum," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(16), pages 2936-2944.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:390:y:2011:i:16:p:2936-2944
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2011.03.040
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    3. Chołoniewski, Jan & Chmiel, Anna & Sienkiewicz, Julian & Hołyst, Janusz A. & Küster, Dennis & Kappas, Arvid, 2016. "Temporal Taylor’s scaling of facial electromyography and electrodermal activity in the course of emotional stimulation," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 91-100.
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    5. Irina Evgenievna Kalabikhina & Evgeniy Petrovich Banin & Imiliya Abduselimovna Abduselimova & German Andreevich Klimenko & Anton Vasilyevich Kolotusha, 2021. "The Measurement of Demographic Temperature Using the Sentiment Analysis of Data from the Social Network VKontakte," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-25, April.
    6. Anna Chmiel & Julian Sienkiewicz & Mike Thelwall & Georgios Paltoglou & Kevan Buckley & Arvid Kappas & Janusz A Hołyst, 2011. "Collective Emotions Online and Their Influence on Community Life," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(7), pages 1-8, July.
    7. Bing Wu & Shan Jiang & Hsinchun Chen, 2015. "The impact of individual attributes on knowledge diffusion in web forums," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 49(6), pages 2221-2236, November.
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