Emotional and cognitive interpersonal processes associated with online social networking

This thesis explored the use of social networking sites (SNSs) from social and cognitive psychological perspectives. It focused on the interpersonal processes associated with interacting with emotionally negative SNS posts, and found that impression management, trait empathy, mood, and cognitive function all impact the ways in which people interact online

Knowledge Modelling and Learning through Cognitive Networks

One of the most promising developments in modelling knowledge is cognitive network science, which aims to investigate cognitive phenomena driven by the networked, associative organization of knowledge. For example, investigating the structure of semantic memory via semantic networks has illuminated how memory recall patterns influence phenomena such as creativity, memory search, learning, and more generally, knowledge acquisition, exploration, and exploitation. In parallel, neural network models for artificial intelligence (AI) are also becoming more widespread as inferential models for understanding which features drive language-related phenomena such as meaning reconstruction, stance detection, and emotional profiling. Whereas cognitive networks map explicitly which entities engage in associative relationships, neural networks perform an implicit mapping of correlations in cognitive data as weights, obtained after training over labelled data and whose interpretation is not immediately evident to the experimenter. This book aims to bring together quantitative, innovative research that focuses on modelling knowledge through cognitive and neural networks to gain insight into mechanisms driving cognitive processes related to knowledge structuring, exploration, and learning. The book comprises a variety of publication types, including reviews and theoretical papers, empirical research, computational modelling, and big data analysis. All papers here share a commonality: they demonstrate how the application of network science and AI can extend and broaden cognitive science in ways that traditional approaches cannot

Emotions Trump Facts: The Role of Emotions in on Social Media: A Literature Review

Emotions are an inseparable part of how people use social media. While a more cognitive view on social media has initially dominated the research looking into areas such as knowledge sharing, the topic of emotions and their role on social media is gaining increasing interest. As is typical to an emerging field, there is no synthesized view on what has been discovered so far and - more importantly - what has not been. This paper provides an overview of research regarding expressing emotions on social media and their impact, and makes recommendations for future research in the area. Considering differentiated emotion instead of measuring positive or negative sentiment, drawing from theories on emotion, and distinguishing between sentiment and opinion could provide valuable insights in the field

Using Consumer-Generated Social Media Posts to Improve Forecasts of Television Premiere Viewership: Extending Diffusion of Innovation Theory

Billions of US dollars in transactions occur each year between media companies and advertisers purchasing commercials on television shows to reach target demographics. This study investigates how consumer enthusiasm can be quantified (via social media posts) as an input to improve forecast models of television series premiere viewership beyond inputs that are typically used in the entertainment industry. Results support that Twitter activity (volume of tweets and retweets) is a driver of consumer viewership of unscripted programs (i.e., reality or competition shows). As such, incorporating electronic word of mouth (eWOM) into forecasting models improves accuracy for predictions of unscripted shows. Furthermore, trend analysis suggests it is possible to calculate a forecast as early as 14 days prior to the premiere date. This research also extends the Diffusion of Innovation theory and diffusion modeling by applying them in the television entertainment environment. Evidence was found supporting Rogers’s (2003) heterophilous communication, also referred to by Granovetter (1973) as “weak ties.” Further, despite a diffusion pattern that differs from other categories, entertainment consumption demonstrates evidence of a mass media (external) channel and an interpersonal eWOM (internal) channel

Emotional Contagion Within Social Media

Social networking sites have been growing in popularity over the last decade or so, and there have been many previous studies that have analyzed the possible consequences of these communication and interaction sites. Emotional contagion is the phenomenon of having one person’s emotions and behaviors directly trigger similar emotions or behaviors in other people. On social media, emotional contagion would mean that the emotions in the posts and content the viewer is exposed to are transferred to themselves without their knowledge. The purpose of this current experiment is to analyze how the exposure to positive affective pictures and messages on an Instagram feed could influence the people viewing them. I created a simple experiment with twenty participants total, 11 females and 9 males, that were separated into the experimental and control group through block randomization. My prediction was that the experimental group that is being exposed to the positive feed will have a higher positive affect score on the PANAS than the control group. My results found a strong effect size and significant p-value which supported my hypothesis as well as the research done previously on this topic

Computational Propaganda: Targeted Advertising and the Perception of Truth

Social media has become an effective medium for the execution of cyberpsychological threats by adopting language to influence perceptions based on personal interests and behaviours. Targeted messages can be refined for maximum effect and have been implicated in changing the outcome of democratic elections and the decreasing uptake of vaccinations. However, computational propaganda and cyberpsychological threats are not well understood within the cybersecurity community. To address this, we adopt the theoretical model of the illusory truth effect to posit that how information is presented online, may solidify views in an \u27undecided\u27 group with \u27some\u27 knowledge of an argument. We test this hypothesis by employing an explanatory sequential design. We first analyse a dataset containing adverts related to Brexit to determine influential terms using the corpus linguistics method. Analysing term frequencies, collocational and concordance information, the results of our quantitative analysis indicate that function words such as the personal pronouns ‘we’ or the definite article ‘the’ play a significant role in the construction of computational propaganda language. We then conducta qualitative analysis of a Facebook ad related to Brexit to further understand how the ‘who’ and the ‘what’ elements are realised in computational propaganda language, that is, who is targeted and what is the underlying message. We found that understanding these, one can gain insights into a threat actor’s motivation, opportunity and capability and, thus, allows a defensive response to be put into place. In turn, how an audience responds, may provide insight on the impact of the threat

Quality of Life Following Massive Weight Loss and Body Contouring Surgery: an Exploratory Study.

Reconstructive surgery is a major growth intervention for body improvement, enhancing appearance and psychological well-being following massive weight loss. The psychosocial benefits include greater capacity for social networking, lower scores of body uneasiness, body image satisfaction, improved mental well-being and physical function. However little collective evidence exists regarding the impact of body contouring on patients Quality of Life (QoL) and there is a lack of systematic review and randomised controlled trials (RCTs) with a scarcity of high level evidence. The purpose of this exploratory study was to explore the QoL perceptions, experiences and outcomes of patients who have undergone body contouring following significant weight loss and to explore the relevance and potential utility of the Obesity Psychosocial State Questionnaire (OPSQ) as a valuable QoL outcomes measuring tool for use in clinical research. Data were collected in a community setting in the south of England via digitally recorded semi-structured interviews with twenty participants (18 women and 2 men), who also self-completed the Obesity Psychosocial State Questionnaire (OBSQ). Medical notes were reviewed retrospectively to gather data about body mass index (BMI), co-morbidities, eating profiles/lifestyle, uptake of bariatric surgery and type/number of body contouring procedures undergone. A thematic approach was adopted to analyse the interviews and medical record data, supported by Nvivo7 qualitative software, and a statistical approach to analyse the questionnaire data, supported by Statistical Analysis Software. The results provide unique glimpses of the body contouring interventions for empowering and facilitating a ‘transformation’, a ‘new identity’, a ‘new start’ in life, improved physical function, greater body image satisfaction, a stronger sense of well-being and an improved quality of life. A few of the participants who reported that their weight gain was powered by childhood traumas (abuse, neglect, abandonment) continued to struggle for ‘normality’, with fragile eating control and addictive traits. Eating disordered trauma survivors mentioned post traumatic flashbacks and underlying conflicts that triggered powerlessness and emotional eating. The emotional flooding with psychological and body related memories did not appear to be fully processed or released, despite counselling and binge eating programmes. The participants also confirmed the value of the OBSQ, whilst highlighting its limited set of three questions on feelings of self-efficacy towards eating habits. The study findings show that body contouring optimises quality of life with significant improvement in physical function, body image, mental health and psychosocial function. Further research is warranted to extent the scope of the findings within a sample drawn from multiple treatment centres. This would valuably: • Explore gender, ethnic and cultural variables, important to optimising quality of life. • Clarify distinguishing features between short and long-term QoL outcomes. • Lead to the development of national policy and guidelines on reconstructive ‘body contouring’ surgery following massive weight loss, in line with the call from the British Association for Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS) A future multi-centre collaborative study could employ the OBSQ, supplemented by an additional tool to explore factors that influence eating habits such as the three factor eating questionnaire (such as the TFEQ-R1 21 Scale). Such research could enhance understanding of quality of life and long-term weight management