2021 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report

Investigating the mechanism political polarization on social media

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20J11407
Research Institution	Tohoku University
Principal Investigator	呂沢宇東北大学, 文学研究科, 特別研究員(DC2)
Project Period (FY)	2020-04-24 – 2022-03-31
Keywords	計算社会科学 / 政治分極化
Outline of Annual Research Achievements	My research investigates affective polarization by focusing on the expressed hostility in cross-cutting interactions. Affective polarization is rooted in social group identity theory, which suggests that group membership can trigger more positive emotional reactions toward the ingroup than the outgroup and a greater willingness to cooperate with members of the ingroup. Taking such ingroup favoritism and outgroup animosity into consideration can offer a more complete picture of political polarization. I employ NLP techniques to detect the expressed sentiment and opinion in the tweet content of interactions, then measure affective polarization by examining how expressed sentiments and opinions vary between in-group interaction and cross-cutting interaction.
Research Progress Status	令和3年度が最終年度であるため、記入しない。
Strategy for Future Research Activity	令和3年度が最終年度であるため、記入しない。

(4 results)