“Where is the love?” Topics and prosocial behavior in German popular music lyrics from 1954 to 2014

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 508-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Ruth

Many content analyses have investigated the content of popular music, but as yet no one has looked for references to prosocial behavior in the lyrics. There are no quantitative content analyses of prosocial content in popular music, although we know that many musicians are concerned with social engagement, the environment, equal rights, and many other prosocial behaviors. To investigate which topics are the most prevalent in popular music lyrics and how frequently these refer to prosocial behavior, a content analysis was performed on 588 songs appearing in the German yearly charts from 1954 to 2014. The major interest of songwriters seems to be love, which was found in 57% of the songs; this was the most common topic found. References to prosocial behavior were found in 3.74% of the songs. Prosocial behavior usually appeared in songs dealing with social or political topics.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 627-627
Author(s):  
Yeeun Lee ◽  
Jennifer Lay ◽  
Atiya Mahmood ◽  
Peter Graf ◽  
Christiane Hoppmann

Abstract Loneliness is a distressing yet adaptive emotional experience that alerts us to socially re-engage. However, loneliness can also lead to social withdrawal and isolation. To reconcile the seemingly contradictory consequences of loneliness, we unpack the timing of the underlying processes by distinguishing between the roles of state loneliness (i.e., daily variations in loneliness) and trait loneliness (i.e., person-average loneliness) in predicting social re-engagement. Using ten days of electronic daily assessments from 95 older adults (M age = 67.0 years; 64.2% women), initial findings indicate that trait loneliness moderates time-varying associations between state loneliness and prosocial behavior: On days of elevated state loneliness, older adults low in trait loneliness report increases in prosocial behavior, whereas older adults high in trait loneliness show decreases in prosocial behavior. Findings suggest that transient loneliness may motivate older adults to actively re-engage with others; chronic loneliness may undermine such adaptive responses.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance H. Fung ◽  
Stella Jouldjian ◽  
Lara Kierlin

Study Objectives.Studies have found that depictions of unhealthy behaviors (e.g., illicit substance use, violence) are common in popular music lyrics; however, we are unaware of any studies that have specifically analyzed the content of music lyrics for unhealthy sleep-related behaviors. We sought to determine whether behaviors known to perpetuate insomnia symptoms are commonly depicted in the lyrics of popular music.Methods.We searched three online lyrics sites for lyrics with the word “insomnia” in the title and performed content analysis of each of the lyrics. Lyrics were analyzed for the presence/absence of the following perpetuating factors: extending sleep opportunity, using counter fatigue measures, self-medicating, and engaging in rituals or anti-stimulus control behaviors.Results.We analyzed 83 music lyrics. 47% described one or more perpetuating factor. 30% described individual(s) engaging in rituals or antistimulus control strategies, 24% described self-medicating, 7% described engaging in counter fatigue measures, and 2% described extending sleep opportunity (e.g., napping during daytime).Conclusion.Maladaptive strategies known to perpetuate insomnia symptoms are common in popular music. Our results suggest that listeners of these sleep-related songs are frequently exposed to lyrics that depict maladaptive coping mechanisms. Additional studies are needed to examine the direct effects of exposing individuals to music lyrics with this content.


2021 ◽  
pp. 004728162110078
Author(s):  
Shanna Cameron ◽  
Alexandra Russell ◽  
Luke Brake ◽  
Katherine Fredlund ◽  
Angela Morris

This article engages with recent discussions in the field of technical communication that call for climate change research that moves beyond the believer/denier dichotomy. For this study, our research team coded 900 tweets about climate change and global warming for different emotions in order to understand how Twitter users rely on affect rhetorically. Our findings use quantitative content analysis to challenge current assumptions about writing and affect on social media, and our results indicate a number of arenas for future research on affect, global warming, and rhetoric.


2021 ◽  
pp. 014616722110072
Author(s):  
Jiafang Chen ◽  
Barbara Nevicka ◽  
Astrid C. Homan ◽  
Gerben A. van Kleef

Narcissists have a relatively higher proclivity for displaying antisocial rather than prosocial behaviors, suggesting a comparatively higher tendency for unfavorably impacting societies. However, maintenance of social order also depends on appropriate responses to others’ social behavior. Once we focus on narcissists as observers rather than actors, their impact on social functioning becomes less clear-cut. Theoretical arguments suggest that narcissists could be either hypo-responsive or hyper-responsive to others’ social behavior. Across four studies, we examined narcissists’ responsiveness to variations in others’ antisocial and prosocial behaviors. Results showed that narcissists differentiated less between others’ antisociality/prosociality, as reflected in their subsequent moral character evaluations (Studies 1–4) and reward and punishment (Studies 3 and 4). These results suggest that narcissists are hypo-responsive to others’ social behaviors. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (s1) ◽  
pp. 765-787
Author(s):  
Alfonso Corral ◽  
Leen d’Haenens

AbstractThe aim of this article is to analyze how the Spanish newspapers covered an international event such as the Egyptian spring from 2011 to 2013. From the perspective of the representation of Arab-Islamic issues, this study carries out a quantitative content analysis on the four reference newspapers in Spain (ABC, El Mundo, El País, and La Vanguardia) to find out whether there was an Islamophobic or Islamophilic treatment during the Egyptian revolution. The results of the 3,045 articles analyzed show that Spanish newspapers were remarkably interested in Egyptian events and that cultural discourses were not relevant in the coverage. However, it is necessary to specify these outcomes by newspaper, because each paper proposed its own take on the matter based on information provided by press agencies.


Author(s):  
Bárbara Castillo-Abdul ◽  
Daniela Jaramillo-Dent ◽  
Luis M. Romero-Rodríguez

The current media environment is complex and has important effects on all aspects of life, including beauty and health. In this sense, YouTube has become one of the main contexts for the dissemination of tutorials and content related to medical procedures such as the application of Botox. Thus, the present study constitutes the first exploratory analysis of YouTube videos in Spanish related to this procedure. A preliminary analysis of 221 YouTube videos yielded a final sample of the 50 most viewed videos within this genre. The analysis was carried out through a quantitative content analysis assessing the popularity of the videos, contact and emotive strategies by the creator, the credibility conveyed, and the characteristics of information about the procedure itself. Results suggest that these influencers align with mainstream Internet celebrity culture in practices that aim at increasing their following and views, as well as calls for subscriptions and visits to other platforms and profiles. Moreover, they include different strategies to establish their credibility but emphasize personal experience. The positive portrayal of the procedure, including positive emotions and content that highlights the benefits, is interesting and supports the commercial nature of much of the content.


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