Beyond anger: uncovering complex emotional patterns between cyberbullying roles through affective computing and epistemic network analysis
Abstract Although emotions are regarded as essential in automatic cyberbullying detection, the nuanced links between emotion types and roles remain underexplored. The dynamics of cyberbullying are therefore somewhat ambiguous. To address these issues, we analyzed the emotional patterns and connectio...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
2025-08-01
|
| Series: | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05689-9 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849766387172507648 |
|---|---|
| author | Jinping Zhong Yilan Mo Junyi Zhang Panpan Liu Xianfei Luo Lixiang Liu Ruofei Ding Jingxiu Huang Yunxiang Zheng |
| author_facet | Jinping Zhong Yilan Mo Junyi Zhang Panpan Liu Xianfei Luo Lixiang Liu Ruofei Ding Jingxiu Huang Yunxiang Zheng |
| author_sort | Jinping Zhong |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Although emotions are regarded as essential in automatic cyberbullying detection, the nuanced links between emotion types and roles remain underexplored. The dynamics of cyberbullying are therefore somewhat ambiguous. To address these issues, we analyzed the emotional patterns and connections between five cyberbullying roles (bullies, outsiders, assistants, defenders, and reporters) on a Chinese social media platform. Six emotions were extracted from 11,601 comments using a large pre-trained model for affective computing. Through epistemic network analysis, this study identified three co-occurrence patterns of emotional expressions among these roles, namely, anger-dominated negative pattern, happiness-anger conflicting pattern, and surprise-fear moderate pattern. Beyond just Angry, three emotions (Fearful, Happy, and Surprised) varied significantly among nearly all roles. In addition to the valence of emotions, the position of these roles within the overall network may also be associated with different levels of emotional arousal. Results of subtracted networks for three role pairs further indicated that these emotional co-occurrences may help identify roles for their perceptions, judgments, and intentions regarding others. These insights hold promise for enhancing targeted bullying detection and intervention. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-737dd2f915d740028fd830bd98cf16a1 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2662-9992 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | Springer Nature |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-737dd2f915d740028fd830bd98cf16a12025-08-20T03:04:35ZengSpringer NatureHumanities & Social Sciences Communications2662-99922025-08-0112111310.1057/s41599-025-05689-9Beyond anger: uncovering complex emotional patterns between cyberbullying roles through affective computing and epistemic network analysisJinping Zhong0Yilan Mo1Junyi Zhang2Panpan Liu3Xianfei Luo4Lixiang Liu5Ruofei Ding6Jingxiu Huang7Yunxiang Zheng8School of Educational Information Technology, South China Normal UniversitySchool of Educational Information Technology, South China Normal UniversitySchool of Educational Information Technology, South China Normal UniversitySchool of Educational Information Technology, South China Normal UniversitySchool of Educational Information Technology, South China Normal UniversitySchool of Educational Information Technology, South China Normal UniversitySchool of Educational Information Technology, South China Normal UniversitySchool of Educational Information Technology, South China Normal UniversitySchool of Educational Information Technology, South China Normal UniversityAbstract Although emotions are regarded as essential in automatic cyberbullying detection, the nuanced links between emotion types and roles remain underexplored. The dynamics of cyberbullying are therefore somewhat ambiguous. To address these issues, we analyzed the emotional patterns and connections between five cyberbullying roles (bullies, outsiders, assistants, defenders, and reporters) on a Chinese social media platform. Six emotions were extracted from 11,601 comments using a large pre-trained model for affective computing. Through epistemic network analysis, this study identified three co-occurrence patterns of emotional expressions among these roles, namely, anger-dominated negative pattern, happiness-anger conflicting pattern, and surprise-fear moderate pattern. Beyond just Angry, three emotions (Fearful, Happy, and Surprised) varied significantly among nearly all roles. In addition to the valence of emotions, the position of these roles within the overall network may also be associated with different levels of emotional arousal. Results of subtracted networks for three role pairs further indicated that these emotional co-occurrences may help identify roles for their perceptions, judgments, and intentions regarding others. These insights hold promise for enhancing targeted bullying detection and intervention.https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05689-9 |
| spellingShingle | Jinping Zhong Yilan Mo Junyi Zhang Panpan Liu Xianfei Luo Lixiang Liu Ruofei Ding Jingxiu Huang Yunxiang Zheng Beyond anger: uncovering complex emotional patterns between cyberbullying roles through affective computing and epistemic network analysis Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| title | Beyond anger: uncovering complex emotional patterns between cyberbullying roles through affective computing and epistemic network analysis |
| title_full | Beyond anger: uncovering complex emotional patterns between cyberbullying roles through affective computing and epistemic network analysis |
| title_fullStr | Beyond anger: uncovering complex emotional patterns between cyberbullying roles through affective computing and epistemic network analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Beyond anger: uncovering complex emotional patterns between cyberbullying roles through affective computing and epistemic network analysis |
| title_short | Beyond anger: uncovering complex emotional patterns between cyberbullying roles through affective computing and epistemic network analysis |
| title_sort | beyond anger uncovering complex emotional patterns between cyberbullying roles through affective computing and epistemic network analysis |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05689-9 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jinpingzhong beyondangeruncoveringcomplexemotionalpatternsbetweencyberbullyingrolesthroughaffectivecomputingandepistemicnetworkanalysis AT yilanmo beyondangeruncoveringcomplexemotionalpatternsbetweencyberbullyingrolesthroughaffectivecomputingandepistemicnetworkanalysis AT junyizhang beyondangeruncoveringcomplexemotionalpatternsbetweencyberbullyingrolesthroughaffectivecomputingandepistemicnetworkanalysis AT panpanliu beyondangeruncoveringcomplexemotionalpatternsbetweencyberbullyingrolesthroughaffectivecomputingandepistemicnetworkanalysis AT xianfeiluo beyondangeruncoveringcomplexemotionalpatternsbetweencyberbullyingrolesthroughaffectivecomputingandepistemicnetworkanalysis AT lixiangliu beyondangeruncoveringcomplexemotionalpatternsbetweencyberbullyingrolesthroughaffectivecomputingandepistemicnetworkanalysis AT ruofeiding beyondangeruncoveringcomplexemotionalpatternsbetweencyberbullyingrolesthroughaffectivecomputingandepistemicnetworkanalysis AT jingxiuhuang beyondangeruncoveringcomplexemotionalpatternsbetweencyberbullyingrolesthroughaffectivecomputingandepistemicnetworkanalysis AT yunxiangzheng beyondangeruncoveringcomplexemotionalpatternsbetweencyberbullyingrolesthroughaffectivecomputingandepistemicnetworkanalysis |