New framework for understanding how emotions shape behaviour online

Research by the University of South Florida in the US, published in the academic journal Management Information Systems Quarterly (commonly known as MISQ Quarterly), introduces a framework for explaining how emotional content affects people online – and why its effects can be so powerful and sometimes contradictory. 

The ‘Tripartite Reactions to Emotions’ theory gives researchers, platform designers, marketers and policymakers a shared framework for understanding how emotional content influences people online and how those effects might be anticipated, measured and managed. 

According to the theory, when someone expresses emotion in an online post or review, it can trigger three distinct psychological reactions, sometimes simultaneously: 

• People form impressions of the product, place or idea being discussed. 

• They make judgments about the person who wrote or posted the content. 

• They experience some of the emotion themselves, an effect known as emotional contagion. 

“Understanding these three distinct reactions helps explain why emotional content online can be so powerful – and why its effects are often surprising or contradictory,” explains Dezhi Yin, lead author and professor at the University of South Florida’s Muma College of Business. 

Different, and sometimes conflicting, behaviours 

The three reactions can lead to very different, and sometimes conflicting, behaviours. One of the theory’s most surprising insights is that an emotional post or review can simultaneously push people toward and away from a product or brand. 

For example, an angry review might cause readers to trust the reviewer less and discount the review while still making them feel negatively about the product being reviewed. 

Similarly, in a social media post about a celebrity, for example, expressions of extreme disgust may lead readers to deem the creator of the post non-credible – but nonetheless lead them to form negative associations about the celebrity.  

“How observers make sense of and resolve such contradictions is a fascinating area for future research,” the researchers observe. 

They believe the framework provides a way to distinguish these different reactions and better understand how they interact, helping explain why the same piece of emotional content can have multiple effects on the consumers who encounter it. 

The paper’s other co-authors are Samuel Bond of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US, and Han Zhang of the Hong Kong Baptist University. 

Find out more about the study here.