Expressing emotions in blogs: The role of textual paralinguistic cues in online venting and social sharing posts

Carmina Rodríguez-Hidalgo; Ed S.H. Tan; Peeter W.J. Verlegh

doi:10.1016/j.chb.2017.04.007

Expressing emotions in blogs: The role of textual paralinguistic cues in online venting and social sharing posts

Carmina Rodríguez-Hidalgo^*, Ed S.H. Tan, Peeter W.J. Verlegh

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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Abstract

Textual paralanguage cues (TPC) have been signaled as effective emotion transmitters online. Though several studies have investigated their properties and occurrence, there remains a gap concerning their communicative impact within specific psychological processes, such as the social sharing of emotion (SSE, Rimé, 2009). This study content-analyzed Live Journal blogposts for the occurrence of TPC in three phases of online SSE: initiation, feedback and repost. We compared these to TPC on a second type of emotional expression, emotional venting. Based on Social Information processing theory (SIP, Walther, 1992), and on the Emotional Mimicry in Context (EMC, Hess & Fischer, 2013) framework, we study predictive relationships in TPC usage in our phased model of online SSE. Results showed that TPC prevailed in SSE blogposts and strongly dominated in emotional venting posts. TPC was more common in affective feedback than cognitive. Moreover, the presence of tactile affective cues (i.e., hugs, kisses) in the initiation post predicted their presence in affective feedback. Results lend support to the idea that TPC are used in socio-contextual ways in online SSE and particularly extrapolate certain FtF nonverbal behaviors, such as the provision of socio-affective touch.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	638-649
Number of pages	12
Journal	Computers in Human Behavior
Volume	73
Early online date	10 Apr 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.04.007
Publication status	Published - Aug 2017

Funding

This research was supported by the Chilean Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) (72140623). The founding entity was not involved in the study design, data collection and analysis, data interpretation, nor the writing and publication process for this article.

Funders	Funder number
Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica	72140623

Keywords

Emotional mimicry
Nonverbal communication
Paralinguistic cues
Social networking sites
Social sharing of emotion
Venting

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10.1016/j.chb.2017.04.007

Expressing emotions in blogsFinal published version, 527 KBLicence: Article 25fa Dutch Copyright Act

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title = "Expressing emotions in blogs: The role of textual paralinguistic cues in online venting and social sharing posts",

abstract = "Textual paralanguage cues (TPC) have been signaled as effective emotion transmitters online. Though several studies have investigated their properties and occurrence, there remains a gap concerning their communicative impact within specific psychological processes, such as the social sharing of emotion (SSE, Rim{\'e}, 2009). This study content-analyzed Live Journal blogposts for the occurrence of TPC in three phases of online SSE: initiation, feedback and repost. We compared these to TPC on a second type of emotional expression, emotional venting. Based on Social Information processing theory (SIP, Walther, 1992), and on the Emotional Mimicry in Context (EMC, Hess & Fischer, 2013) framework, we study predictive relationships in TPC usage in our phased model of online SSE. Results showed that TPC prevailed in SSE blogposts and strongly dominated in emotional venting posts. TPC was more common in affective feedback than cognitive. Moreover, the presence of tactile affective cues (i.e., hugs, kisses) in the initiation post predicted their presence in affective feedback. Results lend support to the idea that TPC are used in socio-contextual ways in online SSE and particularly extrapolate certain FtF nonverbal behaviors, such as the provision of socio-affective touch.",

keywords = "Emotional mimicry, Nonverbal communication, Paralinguistic cues, Social networking sites, Social sharing of emotion, Venting",

author = "Carmina Rodr{\'i}guez-Hidalgo and Tan, {Ed S.H.} and Verlegh, {Peeter W.J.}",

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AU - Verlegh, Peeter W.J.

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AB - Textual paralanguage cues (TPC) have been signaled as effective emotion transmitters online. Though several studies have investigated their properties and occurrence, there remains a gap concerning their communicative impact within specific psychological processes, such as the social sharing of emotion (SSE, Rimé, 2009). This study content-analyzed Live Journal blogposts for the occurrence of TPC in three phases of online SSE: initiation, feedback and repost. We compared these to TPC on a second type of emotional expression, emotional venting. Based on Social Information processing theory (SIP, Walther, 1992), and on the Emotional Mimicry in Context (EMC, Hess & Fischer, 2013) framework, we study predictive relationships in TPC usage in our phased model of online SSE. Results showed that TPC prevailed in SSE blogposts and strongly dominated in emotional venting posts. TPC was more common in affective feedback than cognitive. Moreover, the presence of tactile affective cues (i.e., hugs, kisses) in the initiation post predicted their presence in affective feedback. Results lend support to the idea that TPC are used in socio-contextual ways in online SSE and particularly extrapolate certain FtF nonverbal behaviors, such as the provision of socio-affective touch.

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Expressing emotions in blogs: The role of textual paralinguistic cues in online venting and social sharing posts

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