Increase of Collectivistic Expression in China During the COVID-19 Outbreak: An Empirical Study on Online Social Networks

Frontiers in Psychology

Xiaoqian Liu¹  Peijing Wu²  Xiaopeng Ren²  Tingshao Zhu²  Nuo Han² 

[1] CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;

关键词: collectivism;    pathogen-prevalence hypothesis;    online social networks;    big data;    COVID-19;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2021.632204

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The pathogen-prevalence hypothesis postulates that collectivism would be strengthened in the long term in tandem with recurrent attacks of infectious diseases. However, it is unclear whether a one-time pathogen epidemic would elevate collectivism. The outbreak of COVID-19 and the widespread prevalence of online social networks have provided researchers an opportunity to explore this issue. This study sampled and analyzed the posts of 126,165 active users on Weibo, a leading Chinese online social network. It used independent-sample t-tests to examine whether COVID-19 had an impact on Chinese collectivistic value-related behaviors by comparing the usage frequency of personal pronouns, group-related words, and relationship-related words before and after the outbreak. Overall, most collectivist words exhibited a significant upward trend after the outbreak. In turn, this tendency pointed to a rising sense of collectivism (versus individualism). Hence, this study confirmed the pathogen-prevalence hypothesis in real settings, finding that an outbreak of an infectious disease such as COVID-19 could exert an impact on collectivism and may deliver a theoretical basis for psychological protection against the threat of COVID-19. However, further evaluation is required to ascertain whether this trend is universal or culture-specific.

【 授权许可】

CC BY