eprintid: 2791
rev_number: 9
eprint_status: archive
userid: 69
dir: disk0/00/00/27/91
datestamp: 2015-11-02 13:27:41
lastmod: 2015-11-02 13:27:41
status_changed: 2015-11-02 13:27:41
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Zollo, Fabiana
creators_name: Novak, Petra Kralj
creators_name: Del Vicario, Michela
creators_name: Bessi, Alessandro
creators_name: Mozetič, Igor
creators_name: Scala, Antonio
creators_name: Caldarelli, Guido
creators_name: Quattrociocchi, Walter
creators_id: fabiana.zollo@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: michela.delvicario@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: guido.caldarelli@imtlucca.it
creators_id: walter.quattrociocchi@imtlucca.it
title: Emotional Dynamics in the Age of Misinformation
ispublished: pub
subjects: GT
subjects: H1
subjects: HT
divisions: EIC
full_text_status: public
abstract: According to the World Economic Forum, the diffusion of unsubstantiated rumors on online social media is one of the main threats for our society. The disintermediated paradigm of content production and consumption on online social media might foster the formation of homogeneous communities (echo-chambers) around specific worldviews. Such a scenario has been shown to be a vivid environment for the diffusion of false claim. Not rarely, viral phenomena trigger naive (and funny) social responses—e.g., the recent case of Jade Helm 15 where a simple military exercise turned out to be perceived as the beginning of the civil war in the US. In this work, we address the emotional dynamics of collective debates around distinct kinds of information—i.e., science and conspiracy news—and inside and across their respective polarized communities. We find that for both kinds of content the longer the discussion the more the negativity of the sentiment. We show that comments on conspiracy posts tend to be more negative than on science posts. However, the more the engagement of users, the more they tend to negative commenting (both on science and conspiracy). Finally, zooming in at the interaction among polarized communities, we find a general negative pattern. As the number of comments increases—i.e., the discussion becomes longer—the sentiment of the post is more and more negative.
date: 2015
date_type: published
publication: PloS One
volume: 10
number: 9
publisher: Public Library of Science
pagerange: e0138740
id_number: 10.1371/journal.pone.0138740
refereed: TRUE
issn: 1932-6203
official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0138740
citation:   Zollo, Fabiana and Novak, Petra Kralj and Del Vicario, Michela and Bessi, Alessandro and Mozetič, Igor and Scala, Antonio and Caldarelli, Guido and Quattrociocchi, Walter  Emotional Dynamics in the Age of Misinformation.  PloS One, 10 (9).  e0138740.  ISSN 1932-6203      (2015)  
document_url: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/2791/1/emotional.pdf