Emotional Content in Wikipedia Articles on Negative Man-Made and Nature-Made Events

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Greving ◽  
Aileen Oeberst ◽  
Joachim Kimmerle ◽  
Ulrike Cress

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.

2021 ◽  
pp. 001112872110226
Author(s):  
Noah D. Turner ◽  
Steven M. Chermak ◽  
Joshua D. Freilich

Lone-actor terrorists have increasingly attracted the attention of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners alike. Despite this enhanced interest, few studies have compared the outcomes of lone-actor terrorist attacks with other terrorists, and those that have do not consider the terrorists’ intention to kill in an attack. This study utilizes a sample of 230 terrorist homicide incidents from the Extremist Crime Database to examine the extent to which lone-actors perpetrate more severe attacks than other terrorists. We find that lone-actors are significantly associated with more severe attack outcomes when controlling for the intention to kill. We conclude by commenting on the utility of these findings in U.S. counterterrorism policy and the importance for future research to account for actors’ intentions when assessing terrorist attack severity


2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 581-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven John Holochwost ◽  
Carroll E. Izard

AbstractJuslin & Västfjäll (J&V) propose a theoretical framework of how music may evoke an emotional response. This commentary presents results from a pilot study that employed young children as participants, and measured musically induced emotions through facial expressions. Preliminary findings support certain aspects of the proposed theoretical framework. The implications of these findings on future research employing the proposed framework are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Susanne Jensen ◽  
Gert Tinggaard Svendsen

How does terrorism affect social trust and tourism? The rising number of terrorist attacks in Western Europe has caused safety problems not only for local citizens but also for tourists. In fact, terrorists challenge the formal violence monopoly of the state thus creating a sense of anarchy and distrust. Social trust is about trusting strangers, so when less predictable behaviour occurs in, a given country, people become more careful as they tend to trust most other people less. An interesting case for future research is Scandinavia as the level of terrorism is still low and, at the same time, Scandinavia can record most social trust in the world meaning a competitive advantage when attracting tourists. Arguably, a double dividend is created from fighting terrorism, namely more social trust accumulated and more tourists attracted. Future research should therefore try to further test our model by both quantitative and qualitative methods, for example by undertaking extensive comparative studies between Scandinavia and other countries with more terrorism and less trust.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurjen Jansen ◽  
Paul van Schaik

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the protection motivation theory (PMT) in the context of fear appeal interventions to reduce the threat of phishing attacks. In addition, it was tested to what extent the model relations are equivalent across fear appeal conditions and across time. Design/methodology/approach A pre-test post-test design was used. In the pre-test, 1,201 internet users filled out an online survey and were presented with one of three fear appeal conditions: strong fear appeal, weak fear appeal and control condition. Arguments regarding vulnerability of phishing attacks and response efficacy of vigilant online information-sharing behaviour were manipulated in the fear appeals. In the post-test, data were collected from 786 internet users and analysed with partial least squares path modelling. Findings The study found that PMT model relations hold in the domain of phishing. Self-efficacy and fear were the most important predictors of protection motivation. In general, the model results were equivalent across conditions and across time. Practical Implications It is important to consider online information-sharing behaviour because it facilitates the occurrence and success of phishing attacks. The results give practitioners more insight into important factors to address in the design of preventative measures to reduce the success of phishing attacks. Future research is needed to test how fear appeals work in real-world settings and over longer periods. Originality/value This paper is a substantial adaptation of a previous conference paper (Jansen and Van Schaik, 2017a, b).


2005 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norm O'rourke ◽  
Philippe Cappeliez

The relationship among marital aggrandizement, satisfaction with life, and marital satisfaction is examined among an international sample of older adults (N = 400). Three distinct groupings are identified on the basis of cluster analysis. A minority of participants emerged as dissatisfied with life and marriage. This grouping (the distraught) holds realistic perceptions of their relationship history. The same is true for a larger grouping identified as the realistically content who appear satisfied with life and marriage. The largest grouping (Pollyannas) also appears highly satisfied with life and marriage. Of note, these participants also engage in selective recall negating the occurrence of negative events and perceptions of their spouse and marriage. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) suggests that Pollyannas convey a tendency for self-deception that distinguishes them from the other two groupings. These results are discussed in terms of demographic trends and directions for future research.


2002 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric T. Bradlow ◽  
Stephen J. Hoch ◽  
J. Wesley Hutchinson

The purpose of this article is to describe our efforts to create a test of basic computer proficiency, examine its properties using parametric test scoring methods, and identify some antecedents and consequences that accompany differences in performance. We also consider how much insight people have into their level of knowledge by examining the relationship between our tested measure of computer knowledge and self-rated knowledge scores collected at the same time. This research also adds to the large body of existing empirical work on computer literacy in the student population, by looking at computer literacy in a more general sample of the Internet-using population. A further purpose of this research, as a result, is to make our dataset available for future research.


Author(s):  
Kevin Wallsten ◽  
Dilyana Toteva

The expansion of the Internet and the sudden popularity of Web 2.0 applications, such as blogs, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, raise important questions about the extent and consequences of homophilous sorting in online political discussions. In particular, there is growing concern that Internet users' ability to filter out alternative points of view will lead political discourse to become more polarized and fragmented along ideological lines. The decline of deliberative democracy and the breakdown of America's system of representative government, the story goes, will be the inevitable causalities of political discussions moving from in-person to online. Unfortunately, the empirical research in fields such as mass communication, political science, and sociology provides no hard and fast conclusions about the amount of online homophily in political discussions. This article details this conflicted body of research and points to some areas where future research may provide more insight into the intersection of online politics and homophilous sorting.


There are very few surveys conducted worldwide regarding internet users' opinions about internet regulation. What's more, the authors have already discussed the importance of measuring public opinion around the world in their endeavour to design and propose a fair IRS that will be accepted by the internet users at a national level. In this chapter, the authors discuss the design of their questionnaire and how it was evolved from the initial 2007 UK questionnaire to the current one that was used for conducting surveys in six different countries. This chapter presents the procedure that was used for collecting responses and what kinds of “safeguard” measures were taken in order to avoid deterioration of the gathered survey data. What's more, the analysis procedure of the gathered data is being presented, and the authors discuss the possibility of biased questionnaires and how the latter can be tackled further in future research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S326-S326
Author(s):  
Ronald W Berkowsky

Abstract Previous work focusing on the relationship between Internet use and quality of life among older adults (aged 65+) has found evidence of various positive impacts. This project expands upon this work by examining the relationship between Internet use and measures of psychological well-being (PWB) including autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. The analytic sample is derived from two waves of data (Time 1 = 2004, Time 2 = 2011) taken from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study and includes a sample of older adults aged~65 at Time 1 (N = 4943). Participants were separated into four categories: those who did not use the Internet at Time 1 or 2, those who used the Internet at Time 1 only, those who used the Internet at Time 2 only, and those who used the Internet at both Time 1 and 2. Regression analyses were performed with the Time 2 PWB measures as the outcomes and the Internet use categories as the primary predictors. Results indicate that while continuous Internet users typically reported higher PWB scores compared to non-users, those who stopped use between Time 1 and 2 also reported higher scores and those who started use between Time 1 and 2 reported lower scores. These results generally held when introducing Time 1 PWB measures as controls, suggesting changes in Internet use may affect PWB but not necessarily in the predicted directions. Additional control variables, potential explanations, and implications for future research are discussed.


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