Emotions During the COVID-19 Crisis: A Health Versus Economy Analysis of Public Responses. (December 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vemprala, Naga; Bhatt, Paras; Valecha, Rohit; Rao, H. R.
• Other Names: Robinson Laura guest-editor.; Huang Kuo-Ting guest-editor.; Schulz Jeremy guest-editor.; Chiaraluce Cara guest-editor.; Khilnani Aneka guest-editor.; Johnston Elisha guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: American behavioral scientist. Volume 65:Number 14(2021)
• Page Start: 1972
• Page End: 1989
• Publication Date: 2021-12
• Subjects: COVID-19 -- text analytics -- data mining -- emotions -- sentiment analysis; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1177/00027642211050901
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7642

Abstract

People all over the world were under severe stress and were concerned about their health after a devastating pandemic struck the world in the form of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in late December 2019. Many nations imposed strict lockdowns and quarantines, causing citizens to maintain social isolation, throwing many companies to a halt. Thousands of people took to Twitter during these challenging circumstances to express their feelings about being caught in the middle of a storm. Twitter witnessed an outpouring of emotions ranging from fear, anger, and sadness associated with the spread of a novel virus that has no known cure, to voices of support and trust for nations' official response to the pandemic. In studying the emotional response (anger, fear, and sadness) on Twitter about the COVID-19 crisis, we thus see a tale of two crises unfold—choosing health or economy. We capture collective emotions on social media and investigate the patterns and impact of these negative emotions during various stages of the disease outbreak. It also provides crucial insights to health officials and government agencies on communicating crisis information to the public via social media.