Analytics Challenge @HKUST Webinar Series - Sentiment Influences on Sentiment with Discussion in Football Subreddits

In this presentation, the speaker will discuss his research findings that provide strong evidence for sentiment contagion and its impact on user behavior on social media. Understanding this effect is crucial as sentiment contagion plays a significant role in propagating the negative effects of social media. To accurately measure sentiment contagion, the study proposes an empirical framework that controls for concurrent events and individual history. The study examines how various characteristics of the exposed content, such as content source, content valence, and individual user characteristics, influence sentiment contagion. It also offers insights into the ongoing debate regarding negativity and positivity bias. In terms of social media behavior, the study finds that exposure to extreme content, whether positive or negative, leads to a decrease in user engagement in both the short and long term, and sentiment contagion mediates this effect. The speaker will also discuss the practical implications.