Effect of anger, anxiety, and sadness on the propagation scale of social media posts after natural disasters

Abstract

Social media is widely used for sharing disaster-related information following natural disasters. Drawing on negativity bias theory, integrated crisis mapping model, and arousal theory, this study characterized the emotional responses of the public and tested the way emotional factors and influential users (with high numbers of followers and activeness) affect the number of reposts. Results indicated that after unpredictable earthquakes, the public showed negative responses, and negativity bias theory manifested especially when the posts came from influential users. During a typhoon or earthquake, the number of reposts grew as the number of anger-related words in posts increased. Anxiety- and typhoon-related posts from users with high numbers of followers negatively affected the number of reposts, whereas sadness-related posts had contrasting effects. These findings can help emergency managers formulate proper emotional response strategies after various natural calamities and help researchers test the abovementioned theories or models using real-word data from social media.