Expert System and Sociometrica have mapped out emotions expressed about Covid-19 over social media by people in the US and UK.
The map shows the results of analysis of around 39,000 social media posts where previously the overwhelming feeling was ‘fear’.
The map can be viewed here: Expert System and Sociometrica Map of Emotions
The analysis is now on day 51, which has become the first day where positive emotions are now the dominant emotions.
Despite fear still being the top emotion, ‘Hope’ and ‘trust’ have since become more widespread, as well as ‘love’, ‘happiness’ and ‘amusement’.
Expert System and Sociometrica’s analysis of the map states that:
“Although “fear” continues to be the top emotion, our analysis shows that, for the first time, negative sentiment does not dominate in our sample of social media posts.
“Instead, neutral emotions, which express confidence that the worst of the pandemic is over, are in first place.
“Feelings of “modernism” are also growing. This indicates that people believe that the science, protocols and prudence that have been adopted to guide the re-opening is the right approach.
“While overall positive emotions remain stable, they are not growing significantly. Instead there is growth in the single feelings of “hope” and “confidence.”
“The analysis shows that we may have entered a new phase, no longer marked by fear, anxiety and sadness, but by the belief that the worst is over.”
Expert System’s AI tech extracts the emotions from social media posts to be analysed by Sociometrica.
“Over the last several days, all negative feelings have decreased, from 41.7% to 39.4%.
“Over this same period of time, there has been a hard increase in neutral feelings, from 38.8% to 40.5%.
“Positive emotions are stable, from 19.5% in the last several days, to 20.1% today.”
The change in feelings falls in line with the gradual lifting of lock down measures.
