Have you ever wondered why intense dislike and negativity are often expressed between partisan groups on social media? This phenomenon, known as affective polarization, has become increasingly prevalent in today’s digital age. Social media has been identified as a significant contributor to affective polarization, primarily due to its ability to induce selective exposure to information and people, often through the use of emotional imagery. The EmoAffect research project aims to unravel the role of emotions in fueling affective polarization by analyzing emotional reactions to social media messages.
During the month of June 2023, we conducted our first laboratory study for this project. Approximately 50 participants aged 18–35 were invited to participate in the study. The aim of the study was to collect emotional responses to different types of social media content in two stages: first, during the presentation of the stimuli through psychophysiological recording, and second, after the stimuli through self-reported emotional responses. We sought to investigate the emotional responses of participants whose social-political identity (probably) differs from that of the social media content creator and the specific emotional content that these participants tend to focus their attention on.
Specifically, we were interested in how Swedish-speaking Finns reacted to the social media content of the Finns party leader, Riikka Purra. What piqued our interest was Purra’s distinct use of different platforms. While her Instagram account remained apolitical, her TikTok presence showcased her political leanings.
To unravel the effects of various social media strategies, we randomly assigned participants to explore either Purra’s Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/sanrines/) or her TikTok account (https://www.tiktok.com/@riikkapurra). Our hypothesis revolved around the idea that participants would experience different emotional reactions depending on the platform used by this well-known (and somewhat controversial) politician.
Figure. Riikka Purras Instagram and TikTok
The participants were also asked pre-survey questions regarding their gender, age, occupation, language identity, political interest, social media usage, and feelings towards Finnish parties. Additionally, after experiencing the stimuli, the participants were asked to provide descriptions of their emotional responses during the stimuli.
We want to thank all participants who were able to come and participate in the study. We would also like to extend our thanks to the Experience Lab for providing us with their workspace and equipment. The next steps involve analyzing the data and writing scientific papers to present the results of the laboratory study. However, before diving into these tasks, we plan to take some time off and enjoy a well-deserved vacation, hopefully experiencing some warm weather in Finland.
The research project “EmoAffect” takes on the task of studying how emotional reactions drive affective polarization and focuses on which emotions that are crucial drivers. The project is funded by the Research Council of Finland and carried out at Åbo Akademi University.