A pilot study of differences in behavioral and linguistic characteristics between Sina suicide microblog users and Sina microblog users without suicide idea

Abstract

Objective To investigate how suicide microblog users in China “act” and “speak” differently from other microblog users without suicide idea. Methods The suicide group consisted of 31 Chinese microblog users identified as suicide via online information provided by a Sina microblog user，and the control group consisted of 30 active microblog users without suicide idea screened by using suicide-related psychological scales. The differences in 10 microblog use behavioral characteristics and 88 linguistic characteristics between the suicide group and the control group were compared with normality test and rank sum test respectively. Results In the behavioral characteristics，the suicide group used hyperlinks and “@” less frequently than the control group［0.04 （0.04）vs. 0.06（0.04），P＝0.029；0.60（0.27）vs. 0.69（0.18），P＝0.028］，and was more self-focused ［0.47（0.25）vs. 0.30（0.10），P＝0.010］. In the linguistic characteristics，the suicide group showed less frequency in using measure word，work related word and apostrophe than the control group（P＜ 0.05），and showed more frequency in using pronoun，personal pronoun，third person singular，non-specific pronoun，word expressing social experience，word expressing anxiety，word expressing exclusion，sexual word，religious word，second person singular，human being related word，negative emotion related word，anger related word，sadness or death related word （P＜0.05）. Conclusion Suicides seemed to interact less with others，showed more self-concern and more negative expressions，use more cognitively exclusive，death-related，religion-related words，and use less work-related words. The results of this study might be helpful for the research on suicide among netizen.

目的探討新浪微博用戶中自殺死亡與無自殺意念者行為和語言特徵的差異.方法經新浪微博認證用戶提供的信息,收集31名網絡識別自殺死亡用戶(自殺死亡組);邀請微博用戶填寫自殺意念相關篩查量表,收集30名無自殺意念用戶(對照組).比較兩組用戶在10種微博行為和88種語言特徵方面的差異.結果(1)行為特徵中,自殺死亡組的微博鏈接率(鏈接微博數與公開微博總數的比值)和微博互動率(平均每篇微博@其他用戶的次數)均低於對照組[0.04(0.04)vs.0.06( 0.04),P=0.029;0.60(0.27)vs.0.69(0.18),P=0.028],自我關注程度(平均每篇公開微博使用的第一人稱單數次數)高於對照組[0.47(0.25)vs0 .30(0.10),P=0.010];(2)語言特徵中,自殺死亡組在數量單位詞、工作詞、省略號使用率低於對照組(均P＜0.05),在代名詞、特定人稱代名詞、第三人稱單數、非特定人稱代名詞、社會歷程詞、焦慮詞、排除詞、性詞、宗教詞、第二人稱單數、人類詞、消極情緒詞、憤怒詞、悲傷詞和死亡詞的使用率均高於對照組(均P＜0.05).結論自殺死亡用戶的微博互動更少,更加關注自我,更頻繁地使用表達排除意義的詞語,從情感層面上有更多負性表達,使用更多與死亡、宗教相關而更少與工作相關的表達.這些特點對開展針對網絡用戶的自殺學研究有重要啟示.