Expressing emotions in information sharing: a study of online discussion about immigration

Introduction. The main task of this paper is to assess how emotions are expressed in sharing of information about a controversial topic, immigration, and how the emotional expressions vary by comment type. Method. A sample of 50 threads of conversation from a Finnish online discussion group focusing on issues of immigration was selected for the study. The dataset contains 2,312 messages submitted to the discussion group in 2009–2013. A descriptive statistics approach was used to calculate the percentage distributions for positive and negative emotions in the context of six comment types: agreement, disagreement, neutral statement, sarcasm, provocation, and invective. In addition, qualitative content analysis was employed to characterise the nature of the comments. Results. Of the messages, 21.5% incorporated explicit expressions of emotions. Reflective of the sensitive topic of discussion, the majority of emotions were negative. The most frequent emotions seen were contempt, envy, fear, and irritation. Of the positive emotions, sympathy was expressed most frequently. The positive emotions were articulated in the context of agreement and neutral statements, while other comment types – disagreement, sarcasm, provocation, and invective – incorporated negative emotions only. Conclusions. Emotions are contextual factors that affect information sharing by setting the tone of online discussion. The emphasis on positive or negative emotions is dependent on the nature of the topic at hand. In addition, the intent of the communication affects the ways in which emotions are incorporated into provision of information to others.