Words as Trigger Points in Social Media Discussions

Dimosthenis Antypas, Christian Arnold, José Camacho-Collados, Nedjma Ousidhoum, Carla Pérez-Almendros

Abstract: Trigger points, introduced by Mau et al . [30], are rooted in theories of affective political identity and relate to deeply lying beliefs about moral expectations and social dispositions. Examining trigger points in online discussions helps understand why and when social media users engage in disagreements or affective political deliberations. This opens the door to modelling social media user engagement more effectively and studying the conditions and causal mechanisms that lead to adverse reactions, hate speech, and abusive language in online debates.