Relationships between the Use of Emotional Terms on Social Media, Posting Motives, and Network Structure: Focusing on Positive and Negative Emotional Terms in Twitter

Abstract

This study examines relationships between the use of positive and negative emotional terms on Twitter, posting motives, and a clustering coefficient. Data from an online survey of Japanese Twitter users (n=1472) and their log data on Twitter were analyzed. Results found that the social rewards motive was significantly and negatively related to the number of negative emotional terms, particularly terms expressing anxiety. The recording motive was significantly and positively related to the number of positive terms, while the socializing and consummatory motive was significantly and negatively related to the number of negative terms. There was a significant interaction effect between the socializing and consummatory motive and the clustering coefficient on the number of positive emotional terms.