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Not all #complaints are equally contagious: an Instagram experiment
Cleoputri Yusainy1,2, Ika Fitria1, Thoyyibatus Sarirah1
1Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia.
The Journal of General Psychology
|February 27, 2023
Summary
Exposure to complaint quotes on Instagram can lead to digital emotion contagion, inducing similar negative emotions like anger, disgust, and sadness in users. Non-complaint quotes, however, evoke different emotions.
Area of Science:
- Social Media Psychology
- Digital Communication
- Computational Social Science
Background:
- Instagram is increasingly used for expressing negative emotions, despite perceptions of it being inappropriate for such content.
- Hashtags related to complaints are rising on Instagram, indicating a growing trend of online dissatisfaction expression.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the phenomenon of digital emotion contagion on Instagram.
- To determine if exposure to complaint quotes influences users' emotions.
- To differentiate the effects of complaint versus non-complaint quotes on user emotions.
Main Methods:
- A controlled web-based experiment was conducted with 591 Instagram users in Indonesia.
- Participants were randomly assigned to view complaint quotes expressing seven basic emotions.
- Emotional responses were measured to assess similarity and overlap with exposed emotions.
Main Results:
- Exposure to anger, disgust, and sadness complaint quotes induced similar emotions in participants.
- Fear and anxiety complaint quotes induced overlapping emotions.
- Non-complaint quotes (desire, satisfaction) induced alternative emotions, not contagion.
Conclusions:
- Exposure to complaint quotes on Instagram can cause digital emotion contagion.
- Non-complaint quotes may elicit different, potentially complementary, emotions.
- Simple Instagram quotes can significantly impact users' emotional states beyond mere contagion.
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