Emotionally Aware Moderation: The Potential of Emotion Monitoring in Shaping Healthier Social Media Conversations
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Author / Producer
Date
2025-11
Publication Type
Journal Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
Social media platforms increasingly employ proactive moderation techniques, such as detecting and curbing toxic and uncivil comments, to prevent the spread of harmful content. Despite these efforts, such approaches are often criticized for creating a climate of censorship and failing to address the underlying causes of uncivil behavior. Our work makes both theoretical and practical contributions by proposing and evaluating two types of emotion monitoring dashboards to enhance users’ emotional awareness and mitigate hate speech. In a study involving 211 participants, we evaluate the effects of the two mechanisms on user commenting behavior and emotional experiences. The results reveal that these interventions effectively increase users’ awareness of their emotional states and reduce hate speech. However, our findings also indicate potential unintended effects, including increased expression of negative emotions (Angry, Fear, and Sad) when discussing sensitive issues. These insights provide a basis for further research on integrating proactive emotion regulation tools into social media platforms to foster healthier digital interactions.
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Publication status
published
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Editor
Book title
Journal / series
Volume
9 (7)
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
Event
Edition / version
Methods
Software
Geographic location
Date collected
Date created
Subject
social media; proactive intervention; emotion monitoring
Organisational unit
09820 - Wang, April Yi / Wang, April Yi