Abstract Prior research has indicated that both attitudinal homogeneity of communication networks (“echo chambers”) and attitudinal heterogeneity of communication networks (“adversarial debates”) can lead to attitude polarization. The present paper argues that communication in both echo chambers and adversarial debates is dominated by network negativity, a negative valence in the tone of discussions which might be associated with attitude polarization. Combining methods from sentiment analysis and social network analysis, more than 4 million tweets on two controversial topics (Brexit, Trump) were analyzed to investigate the occurrence of network negativity and its association with two proxies of attitude polarization (extremity and ambivalence). Results indicate that negativity in users’ own tweets was most strongly related to polarization, whereas negativity among users’ friends, or consonance of sentiments between users and friends had less impact on polarization. The findings are related to literatures on negativity bias, optimal distinctiveness theory, and intergroup contact theory.

中文翻译：

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在社交媒体上使用负面语气会导致态度两极分化吗？

摘要 先前的研究表明，通信网络（“回声室”）的态度同质性和通信网络的态度异质性（“对抗性辩论”）都会导致态度两极分化。本论文认为，回声室和对抗性辩论中的交流都受到网络消极性的支配，消极性是讨论语气中的一种消极价，可能与态度极化有关。结合情感分析和社交网络分析的方法，对两个有争议的话题（英国退欧、特朗普）的超过 400 万条推文进行了分析，以调查网络消极性的发生及其与态度极化的两个代理（极端和矛盾）的关联。结果表明，用户自己推文中的消极情绪与极化最密切相关，而用户朋友之间的消极情绪或用户与朋友之间的情感共鸣对两极分化的影响较小。研究结果与消极偏见、最优独特性理论和群际接触理论的文献有关。