“Collective emotions and social resilience in the digital traces after a terrorist attack”


Apr 12, 2019 | 15:0016:30

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David Garcia’s talk in Session V-15: “The Wellbeing of Children and Youth in the Digital Age” at the International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development, April 9 to 12, 2019, in Moscow.

 

Abstract

Collective emotions and social resilience in the digital traces after a terrorist attack

After collective traumas such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks, members of concerned communities experience intense emotions and talk profusely about them. Although these exchanges resemble simple emotional venting, Durkheim’s theory of collective effervescence postulates that these collective emotions lead to higher levels of solidarity in the affected community.

 

We present the first large-scale test of this theory through the analysis of digital traces of 62,114 Twitter users after the Paris terrorist attacks of November 2015.

 

We found a collective negative emotional response followed by a marked long-term increase in the use of lexical indicators related to solidarity. Expressions of social processes, prosocial behavior, and positive affect were higher in the months after the attacks for the individuals who participated to a higher degree in the collective emotion. Our findings support the conclusion that collective emotions after a disaster are associated with higher solidarity, revealing the social resilience of a community.

 

Details

Date
Apr 12, 2019
Time
15:00—16:30
Website
https://conf.hse.ru/en/2019/program#2019-04-12

Organizer

National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University)

Venue

National Research University Higher School of Economics
20 Myasnitskaya Ulitsa
Moscow,101000Russian Federation
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Website
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