Language-based Valence and Arousal Expressions between the United States and China: a Cross-Cultural Examination

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Cho, Young-Min, Pang, Dandan, Thapa, Stuti, Sherman, Garrick, Ungar, Lyle, Tay, Louis, Guntuku, Sharath Chandra
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Cho, Young-Min
Pang, Dandan
Thapa, Stuti
Sherman, Garrick
Ungar, Lyle
Tay, Louis
Guntuku, Sharath Chandra
author_facet Cho, Young-Min
Pang, Dandan
Thapa, Stuti
Sherman, Garrick
Ungar, Lyle
Tay, Louis
Guntuku, Sharath Chandra
contents While affective expressions on social media have been extensively studied, most research has focused on the Western context. This paper explores cultural differences in affective expressions by comparing valence and arousal on Twitter/X (geolocated to the US) and Sina Weibo (in Mainland China). Using the NRC-VAD lexicon to measure valence and arousal, we identify distinct patterns of emotional expression across both platforms. Our analysis reveals a functional representation between valence and arousal, showing a negative offset in contrast to traditional lab-based findings which suggest a positive offset. Furthermore, we uncover significant cross-cultural differences in arousal, with US users displaying higher emotional intensity than Chinese users, regardless of the valence of the content. Finally, we conduct a comprehensive language analysis correlating n-grams and LDA topics with affective dimensions to deepen our understanding of how language and culture shape emotional expression. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of affective communication across cultural and linguistic contexts on social media.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_05254
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Language-based Valence and Arousal Expressions between the United States and China: a Cross-Cultural Examination
Cho, Young-Min
Pang, Dandan
Thapa, Stuti
Sherman, Garrick
Ungar, Lyle
Tay, Louis
Guntuku, Sharath Chandra
Computers and Society
Computation and Language
While affective expressions on social media have been extensively studied, most research has focused on the Western context. This paper explores cultural differences in affective expressions by comparing valence and arousal on Twitter/X (geolocated to the US) and Sina Weibo (in Mainland China). Using the NRC-VAD lexicon to measure valence and arousal, we identify distinct patterns of emotional expression across both platforms. Our analysis reveals a functional representation between valence and arousal, showing a negative offset in contrast to traditional lab-based findings which suggest a positive offset. Furthermore, we uncover significant cross-cultural differences in arousal, with US users displaying higher emotional intensity than Chinese users, regardless of the valence of the content. Finally, we conduct a comprehensive language analysis correlating n-grams and LDA topics with affective dimensions to deepen our understanding of how language and culture shape emotional expression. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of affective communication across cultural and linguistic contexts on social media.
title Language-based Valence and Arousal Expressions between the United States and China: a Cross-Cultural Examination
topic Computers and Society
Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.05254