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Words matter: How privacy concerns and conspiracy theories spread on twitter
Author(s) -
Visentin Marco,
Tuan Annamaria,
Di Domenico Giandomenico
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
psychology and marketing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.035
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1520-6793
pISSN - 0742-6046
DOI - 10.1002/mar.21542
Subject(s) - social media , internet privacy , psychology , affect (linguistics) , set (abstract data type) , style (visual arts) , certainty , covid-19 , social psychology , tracing , advertising , computer science , world wide web , epistemology , communication , business , medicine , philosophy , disease , archaeology , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , history , programming language , operating system
The use of contact‐tracing apps to curb the spreading of the COVID‐19 pandemic has stimulated social media debates on consumers' privacy concerns about the use and storage of sensitive data and on conspiracy theories positing that these apps are part of plans against individuals' freedom. By analyzing the type of language of tweets, we found which words, linguistic style, and emotions conveyed by tweets are more likely to be associated with consumers' privacy concerns and conspiracy theories and how they affect virality. To do so, we analyze a set of 5615 tweets related to the Italian tracing app “Immuni”. Results suggest that consumers' privacy concerns and conspiracy theories belong to different domains and exert different effects on the virality of tweets. Furthermore, the characteristics of the text (namely, complexity, certainty and emotions) cue different Twitter users' behaviors. This study helps researchers and managers to infer the psychological mechanisms that lead people to spread tweets about privacy concerns and conspiracy theories as well as how these texts impact the user who receives it.