Psychological processes underlying Wikipedia representations of natural and manmade disasters
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Transcript of Psychological processes underlying Wikipedia representations of natural and manmade disasters
Psychological processes underlying Wikipedia
representations of natural and manmade disasters
Michela FerronCenter for Mind/Brain Sciences
University of Trento
Paolo MassaFondazione
Bruno Kessler
Anti-Islamic
hate crimes
after 9/11
movies
Legislation & surveillance
Outline
Collective Memories
Wikipedia as a global memory place
Automated natural language techniques Traumatic VS Non traumatic events Old VS recent traumatic events Traumatic events caused by man VS nature
Conclusions
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
A set of ideas, images, feelings about the past, built through an active process of sense-making through time
Photos: Wikipedia (1, 2, 3, 4)
Lincoln memorial
Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe
Wahington memorial
Ocklaoma City bombings memorial
Collective Memories
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Photos: Wikipedia (1, 2) and Flickr (3, 4)
Kennedy assassination
September 11 attacks
2005 London bombings
2004 IndianTsunami
Traumatic events
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
After a traumatic event:
Violence increases (Pennebaker and Harber, 1993; FBI national hate crime statistics)
Psychological/health problems increase of negative
emotions (Koss & Kilpatrick, 2001; Stroebe, Hansson, Stroebe, & Schut, 2001)
increase of cognitive activity (Davis & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2001; Pennebaker et al., 2003)
increase of social sharing and social support (Mehl & Pennebaker, 2003; Pyszczynski, Solomon, & Greenberg, 2002; Rimé et al.,1998)
Traumatic eventsshort-term and long-term effects
Anti-Islamic
hate crimes
after 9/11
Collective memories:
Maintain social bonds (Wang, 2008; Irwin-Zarecka, 1994)
Direct behavior (Wang, 2008; Pennebaker et al., 1997; Irwin-Zarecka, 1994)
Are persistent for years and can be at the root of wars, prejudice, cultural identities(Pennebaker et al., 1997)
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
What happens in Wikipedia
Wikipedia as a global memory place
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
“[…] the online encyclopaedia is a global memory place where locally disconnected participants can express and debate divergent points of view and that this leads to the formation and ratification of shared knowledge that constitutes collective memory.”
(Pentzold, 2009, p. 263)
Wikipedia as a global memory place
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Automated natural language processing techniques
Goal: to analyze the content of Wikipedia articles about natural and man-made disasters employing automated content analysis tools
Linguistic Inquiry & Word Count (Pennebaker et al.,
2001) searches for words across: Linguistic categories (e.g. pronouns, articles, tenses) Psychological categories (e.g. social, affective, cognitive
processes)
Traumatic VS non traumatic events Temporal focus of old VS recent events
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
LIWC to get a score for each psychological variable
Psychological processes ExamplesAffective processes Happy, hate, kiss
Positive emotions Love, party, pleasantNegative emotions Hurt, abuse, scary
Anxiety Worried, afraidAnger Kill, aggression, destroySadness Sad, cry, depression
Cognitive processes Cause, acknowledge, admitInsight Think, assume, interpretCausation Because, depend, elicitDiscrepancy Should, could, ifTentative Maybe, apparently, supposeCertainty Always, absolutely, clearInhibition Block, abstain, avoidInclusive And, add, alongExclusive But, either, without
Social processes Mate, guy, boyFamily Daughter, brother, dadFriends Buddy, friend, mateHumans Adult, children, girl
Traumatic and non traumatic eventsHypotheses
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Traumatic and non traumatic eventsData
Wikipedia’s categories (“Events by topic”), History Central and Information Britain
66 articles about traumatic events (e.g. September 11 attacks, 7 July 2005 London bombings, Chernobyl disaster)
40 articles about non traumatic events (e.g. Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Woodstock Festival, Super Bowl XXXVIII)
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Higher presence in articles about traumatic events of:
negative emotions cognitive processes social processes
In articles about non traumatic events:
positive emotions
Psychological processes ExamplesAffective processes Happy, hate, kiss
Positive emotions Love, party, pleasantNegative emotions Hurt, abuse, scary
Anxiety Worried, afraidAnger Kill, aggression, destroySadness Sad, cry, depression
Cognitive processes Cause, acknowledge, admitInsight Think, assume, interpretCausation Because, depend, elicitDiscrepancy Should, could, ifTentative Maybe, apparently, supposeCertainty Always, absolutely, clearInhibition Block, abstain, avoidInclusive And, add, alongExclusive But, either, without
Social processes Mate, guy, boyFamily Daughter, brother, dadFriends Buddy, friend, mateHumans Adult, children, girl
Traumatic and non traumatic eventsHypotheses
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Traumatic and non traumatic eventsAnalysis
1 negative emotion
14 total words
Arcsine transformation T-tests for indipendent samples
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
negative emotions
Traumatic and non traumatic eventsResults
All differences in the graphs are statistically significant
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Temporal focus of old and recent traumatic events: Data & Analysis
Articles in their early stage (after 500 revisions) Temporal focus more evident Many words per article
Out of 55 articles 26 about events happened before 2001 (e.g. John F.
Kennedy assassination) 29 about events happened after 2001 (e.g. 2011
Tohoku earthquake and tsunami)
LIWC: linguistics categories (past, present and future tenses)
Arcsine transformation and t-tests for independent samples
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Temporal focus of old and recent traumatic events: Hypotheses & Results
HP: higher presence of past tense in old events, higher presence of present/future tenses in recent events
*
*
*
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
LIWC applied to Wikipedia
LIWC is effective in detecting
Differences in content referred to psychological processes emerging from articles about traumatic and non traumatic events
Differences in the temporal focus of articles about old and recent traumatic events
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
How people remember traumatic events: Understand the consequences on the physical and
psychological health of people and communities
Differences in the psychological processes: First step toward the understanding and the
prediction of trauma, typical responses to it, and short and long-term effects
Empirically validate theoretical findings in Wikipedia
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Natural and human-made traumatic events
Natural and human-made traumatic events
Traumatic events can be very different
Theoretical reasons to distinguish between natural and human-made traumatic events
Literature: human accidents may have longer and more insidious effects of physical and psychological health: negative emotions; nervousness and anxiety (Cohn et al., 2004;
Adler, 1943)
psychological and work-related problems (Leopold and Dillon, 1963; Henderson and Bostock, 1977; Ploeger, 1972)
depression, anxiety, personality changes (Titchener and Kapp, 1976)
sleep disturbances and psychiatric problems (Gleser et al., 1981; Gleser et al., 1978)
war-related dreams and aggravated assaults (Pennebaker and Harber, 1993)
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Uncontrollable helplessness
Loss of control stress arousal
Natural and human-made traumatic events
Baum et al., 1986
Natural disasters Human disasters
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
September 11 attacks
2004 IndianTsunami
Articles in their early stage (after 500 revisions)
Out of 55 articles with at least 500 revisions 36 about events caused by man (e.g. “Fort Hood
shooting”, “2011 Norway attacks”) Wikipedia’s categories, e.g. “Assassinations”, “Terrorist
incidents” 19 about events caused by nature (e.g. “2004
Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami”, “2010 Haiti earthquake”) Wikipedia’s categories, e.g. “2008 Atlantic Hurricane
Season”, “1993 natural disasters”
Natural and human-made traumatic eventsData
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Affective processes Human-made disasters: loss of control (distress) higher
anxiety, anger Natural disasters: uncontrollable (helplessness) higher
sadness
Cognitive processes Human-made disasters: loss of control higher cognitive
processes
Social processes Human-made disasters: increased orientation toward others
+ more references to people higher social processes
Natural and human-made traumatic eventsHypotheses
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Natural and human-made traumatic eventsResults
Affective processes Happy, hate, kissPositive emotions Love, party, pleasantNegative emotions Hurt, abuse, scary
Anxiety Worried, afraidAnger Kill, aggression, destroySadness Sad, cry, depression
*
**
Human-made traumatic events: more anxiety,
anger (blame)
Natural disasters: more sadness
(passive behavior)
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Natural and human-made traumatic eventsResults
Cognitive processes Cause, acknowledge, admitInsight Think, assume, interpretCausation Because, depend, elicitDiscrepancy Should, could, ifTentative Maybe, apparently, supposeCertainty Always, absolutely, clearInhibition Block, abstain, avoidInclusive And, add, alongExclusive But, either, without
*
** *
Human-made traumatic events: need for
explanation is critical (unexpected loss of control)
Natural disasters: need for
explanation is less pressing (nature is uncontrollable)
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Natural and human-made traumatic eventsResults
Social processes Mate, guy, boyFamily Daughter, brother, dadFriends Buddy, friend, mateHumans Adult, children, girl
*
*
Human-made traumatic events: higher social
orientation? more
references to people (bomber’s family or social relations)
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Difficult definition of human-made and natural disasters Wikipedia’s categories But the distinction is not always clear-cut (“2011
Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami”)
LIWC and other automated techniques Limitations (psychological categories are
subjective and context-dependent) Know your data (noise caused by bots, vandalism,
templates)
Considerations
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Different psychological and sensemaking processes underlying users editing activity Specific patterns of emotional language
Conclusions: Take-home message
anger, anxiety
sadness
Man-made disasters
Natural disasters
Arousal
Valence
negative
positive
high activation
low activation
stressfulfocused anger
heavier effects
passive responses
Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recentBackground Man - Nature Conclusions
Thank you!
Questions? Suggestions?