What Feeds Firestorms of Emotion? Emotion Regulation, Emotion Contagion, and Collective Behavior in Socio-Political Events
Abstract
The primary goal of this research program is to understand the dynamics of social-emotion firestorms that drive collective behavior, and to develop strategies to combat them through human or automated interventions. Emotion firestorms, defined as sudden, rapid diffusion of strong emotional content throughout social networks, are important to understand because they arise suddenly, spread widely and rapidly, and serve as essential fuel for conflict in society such as violent protests or riots. This research program centers on developing and testing a novel multi-level theory of the social spread of emotion grounded in psychological research into how humans generate and regulate their emotions. In doing so, the theory helps to identify the conditions that promote widespread emotional contagion, information cascades (e.g., spread of news, blame attributions, or conspiracy theories), and behavioral cascades (e.g., collective political activism, protests, riots, or violent conflict). This aspect of the project addresses the Army Research OfficeÕs goal of advancing basic science in the area of social interaction in complex systems and integration of theories to explain both individual and group behavior. The second goal of the project is to apply theory-driven research findings to the study of automated bots in social media in order to understand how they are used to generate social emotional contagion and emotion-driven behavior by seeding and propagating information in online social networks. The use of bots to promote political agendas and motivate political behavior is a rapidly developing technology with potentially profound consequences. The proposed research program tests how variation in seeding strategies and emotion-provoking content influences individual and group behavior with an eye toward comparing the effectiveness of human-seeded emotion contagion to bot-seeded emotion contagion. This aspect of the project addresses the Army Research OfficeÕs goals of better understanding how emerging technologies influence interactions among groups in society by identifying specific ways in which the emotions that motivate group behavior are spread in society. This research also serves as a catalyst for engaging students from underrepresented groups in the process of scientific research so that they gain training in vital STEM skills that support national interests, including social media analytics, computational modeling, experimental research design, causal analysis, and data visualization. UNC Charlotte is a Title III and Title V institution that serves a large pool of minority and first-generation college students; it would benefit greatly from further institutionalization of innovative research opportunities. This project also draws upon a local crisisÑrioting in the aftermath of a police shootingÑthat was particularly engaging to minority communities at UNC Charlotte; thus, it naturally encourages underrepresented groups and student interest in the project. Our multi-level, multi-disciplinary team approach facilitates strong mentorship ties from Ph.D. to undergraduate levels to allow students to more concretely envision the steps to higher levels of education, which helps to prepare them for careers in STEM fields.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 14, 2019
- Source ID
- W911NF1810449
Entities
People
- Cherie Maestas
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill