Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 267-287 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Journal of Language and Social Psychology |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Abstract
Wikipedia emphasizes the objectivity of content. Yet, Wikipedia articles also deal with negative events that potentially elicit intense emotions. Undesirable outcomes (e.g., earthquakes) are known to elicit sadness, while undesirable outcomes caused by others’ actions (e.g., terrorist attacks) are known to elicit anger. Internet users’ emotional responses are likely to end up in Wikipedia articles on those events as characteristics of Internet users spill over to Wikipedia articles. Therefore, we expected that Wikipedia articles on terrorist attacks contain more anger-related and less sadness-related content than articles on earthquakes. We analyzed newly created Wikipedia articles about the two events (Study 1) as well as more current versions of those Wikipedia articles after the events had already happened (Study 2). The results supported our expectations. Surprisingly, Wikipedia articles on those two events contained more emotional content than related Wikipedia talk pages (Study 3). We discuss the implications for Wikipedia and future research.
Keywords
- Wikipedia, anger, earthquakes, emotions, negative events, sadness, terrorist attacks
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences(all)
- Education
- Social Sciences(all)
- Anthropology
- Psychology(all)
- Social Psychology
- Arts and Humanities(all)
- Language and Linguistics
- Social Sciences(all)
- Sociology and Political Science
- Social Sciences(all)
- Linguistics and Language
Sustainable Development Goals
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In: Journal of Language and Social Psychology, Vol. 37, No. 3, 06.2018, p. 267-287.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Emotional content in Wikipedia articles on negative man-made and nature-made events
AU - Greving, Hannah
AU - Oeberst, Aileen
AU - Kimmerle, Joachim
AU - Cress, Ulrike
N1 - Funding Information: Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany, and head of the research group “Collaborative Biases” that is funded by the Leibniz Society and located at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, Tübingen, Germany. Her research focuses on biases in information processing.
PY - 2018/6
Y1 - 2018/6
N2 - Wikipedia emphasizes the objectivity of content. Yet, Wikipedia articles also deal with negative events that potentially elicit intense emotions. Undesirable outcomes (e.g., earthquakes) are known to elicit sadness, while undesirable outcomes caused by others’ actions (e.g., terrorist attacks) are known to elicit anger. Internet users’ emotional responses are likely to end up in Wikipedia articles on those events as characteristics of Internet users spill over to Wikipedia articles. Therefore, we expected that Wikipedia articles on terrorist attacks contain more anger-related and less sadness-related content than articles on earthquakes. We analyzed newly created Wikipedia articles about the two events (Study 1) as well as more current versions of those Wikipedia articles after the events had already happened (Study 2). The results supported our expectations. Surprisingly, Wikipedia articles on those two events contained more emotional content than related Wikipedia talk pages (Study 3). We discuss the implications for Wikipedia and future research.
AB - Wikipedia emphasizes the objectivity of content. Yet, Wikipedia articles also deal with negative events that potentially elicit intense emotions. Undesirable outcomes (e.g., earthquakes) are known to elicit sadness, while undesirable outcomes caused by others’ actions (e.g., terrorist attacks) are known to elicit anger. Internet users’ emotional responses are likely to end up in Wikipedia articles on those events as characteristics of Internet users spill over to Wikipedia articles. Therefore, we expected that Wikipedia articles on terrorist attacks contain more anger-related and less sadness-related content than articles on earthquakes. We analyzed newly created Wikipedia articles about the two events (Study 1) as well as more current versions of those Wikipedia articles after the events had already happened (Study 2). The results supported our expectations. Surprisingly, Wikipedia articles on those two events contained more emotional content than related Wikipedia talk pages (Study 3). We discuss the implications for Wikipedia and future research.
KW - Wikipedia
KW - anger
KW - earthquakes
KW - emotions
KW - negative events
KW - sadness
KW - terrorist attacks
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85057928933&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0261927x17717568
DO - 10.1177/0261927x17717568
M3 - Article
VL - 37
SP - 267
EP - 287
JO - Journal of Language and Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Language and Social Psychology
SN - 0261-927X
IS - 3
ER -