Paper presented at Wikisym 2012: Collective memories are precious resources for the society, because they help strengthening emotional bonding between community members, maintaining groups cohesion, and directing future behavior. Studying how people form their collective memories of emotional upheavals is important in order to better understand people's reactions and the consequences on their psychological health. Previous research investigated the effects of single traumatizing events, but few of them tried to compare different types of traumatic events like natural and man-made disasters. In this paper, interpreting Wikipedia as a collective memory place, we compare articles about natural and human-made disasters employing automated natural language techniques, in order to highlight the different psychological processes underlying users' sensemaking activities.
Psychological processes underlying Wikipedia representations of natural and manmade disasters
1. Psychological processes underlying
Wikipedia representations of
natural and manmade disasters
Michela Ferron Paolo Massa
Center for Mind/Brain Sciences Fondazione
University of Trento Bruno Kessler
m.ferron@unitn.it massa@fbk.eu
2.
3. Anti-Islamic
hate crimes
after 9/11
movies
Legislation &
surveillance
4. Outline
Collective Memories
Wikipedia as a global memory place
Automated natural language techniques
Traumatic VS Non traumatic events
Old VS recent traumatic events
Traumatic events caused by man VS nature
Conclusions
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
5. Collective Memories
A set of ideas, images, feelings about the past, built
through an active process of sense-making through time
Memorial
Lincoln to the
memorial murdered
Jews of
Europe
Wahington Ocklaoma
memorial City
bombings
memorial
Photos: Wikipedia (1, 2, 3, 4)
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
6. Traumatic events
September 11 attacks 2005 London bombings
2004 IndianTsunami Kennedy
assassination
Photos: Wikipedia (1, 2) and Flickr (3,
4)
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
7. Traumatic events
short-term and long-term effects
After a traumatic event: Collective memories:
Anti-Islamic
hate crimes
Violence increases Maintain social bonds
after 9/11
(Pennebaker and Harber, 1993; FBI national hate crime statistics) (Wang, 2008; Irwin-Zarecka, 1994)
Psychological/health problems
increase of negative emotions Direct behavior
(Wang, 2008; Pennebaker et al., 1997; Irwin-Zarecka, 1994)
(Koss & Kilpatrick, 2001; Stroebe, Hansson, Stroebe, & Schut,
2001)
increase of cognitive activity Are persistent for years and
(Davis & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2001; Pennebaker et al., 2003) can be at the root of wars,
increase of social sharing and prejudice, cultural identities
social support (Pennebaker et al., 1997)
(Mehl & Pennebaker, 2003; Pyszczynski, Solomon, & Greenberg,
2002; Rimé et al.,1998)
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
8. Wikipedia as a global memory place
What happens in Wikipedia
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
9. Wikipedia as a global memory place
“[…] the online encyclopaedia is a global memory place
where locally disconnected participants can express and
debate divergent points of view and that this leads to the
formation and ratification of shared knowledge that
constitutes collective memory.”
(Pentzold, 2009, p. 263)
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
10. Automated natural language
processing techniques
Goal: to analyze the content of Wikipedia articles about
natural and man-made disasters employing automated
content analysis tools
Linguistic Inquiry & Word Count (Pennebaker et al., 2001)
searches for words across:
Linguistic categories (e.g. pronouns, articles, tenses)
Psychological categories (e.g. social, affective, cognitive processes)
Traumatic VS non traumatic events
Temporal focus of old VS recent events
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
11. Traumatic and non traumatic events
Hypotheses
Psychological processes Examples
Affective processes Happy, hate, kiss
Positive emotions Love, party, pleasant
Negative emotions Hurt, abuse, scary
Anxiety Worried, afraid
LIWC to get a score Anger Kill, aggression, destroy
Sadness Sad, cry, depression
for each psychological Cognitive processes Cause, acknowledge, admit
variable Insight Think, assume, interpret
Causation Because, depend, elicit
Discrepancy Should, could, if
Tentative Maybe, apparently, suppose
Certainty Always, absolutely, clear
Inhibition Block, abstain, avoid
Inclusive And, add, along
Exclusive But, either, without
Social processes Mate, guy, boy
Family Daughter, brother, dad
Friends Buddy, friend, mate
Humans Adult, children, girl
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
12. Traumatic and non traumatic events
Data
Wikipedia’s categories (“Events by topic”), History
Central and Information Britain
66 articles about traumatic events (e.g. September 11
attacks, 7 July 2005 London bombings, Chernobyl disaster)
40 articles about non traumatic events (e.g.
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Woodstock Festival, Super
Bowl XXXVIII)
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
13. Traumatic and non traumatic events
Hypotheses
Psychological processes Examples
Affective processes Happy, hate, kiss
Positive emotions Love, party, pleasant
Higher presence in articles Negative emotions Hurt, abuse, scary
about traumatic events of: Anxiety
Anger
Worried, afraid
Kill, aggression, destroy
negative emotions Sadness Sad, cry, depression
Cognitive processes Cause, acknowledge, admit
cognitive processes Insight Think, assume, interpret
social processes Causation Because, depend, elicit
Discrepancy Should, could, if
Tentative Maybe, apparently, suppose
Certainty Always, absolutely, clear
Inhibition Block, abstain, avoid
In articles about non Inclusive
Exclusive
And, add, along
But, either, without
traumatic events: Social processes Mate, guy, boy
positive emotions Family Daughter, brother, dad
Friends Buddy, friend, mate
Humans Adult, children, girl
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
14. Traumatic and non traumatic events
Analysis
1 negative emotion
14 total words
negative emotions
Arcsine transformation
T-tests for indipendent samples
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
15. Traumatic and non traumatic events
Results
All differences in the graphs
are statistically significant
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
16. Temporal focus of old and recent
traumatic events: Data & Analysis
Articles in their early stage (after 500 revisions)
Temporal focus more evident
Many words per article
Out of 55 articles
26 about events happened before 2001 (e.g. John F. Kennedy
assassination)
29 about events happened after 2001 (e.g. 2011 Tohoku
earthquake and tsunami)
LIWC: linguistics categories (past, present and future tenses)
Arcsine transformation and t-tests for independent samples
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
17. Temporal focus of old and recent traumatic
events: Hypotheses & Results
HP: higher presence of past tense in old events, higher
presence of present/future tenses in recent events
*
*
*
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
18. LIWC applied to Wikipedia
LIWC is effective in detecting
Differences in content referred to psychological processes
emerging from articles about traumatic and non traumatic
events
Differences in the temporal focus of articles about old and
recent traumatic events
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
19. Natural and human-made
traumatic events
How people remember traumatic events:
Understand the consequences on the physical and
psychological health of people and communities
Differences in the psychological processes:
First step toward the understanding and the prediction of
trauma, typical responses to it, and short and long-term effects
Empirically validate theoretical findings in Wikipedia
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
20. Natural and human-made
traumatic events
Traumatic events can be very different
Theoretical reasons to distinguish between natural and
human-made traumatic events
Literature: human accidents may have longer and more
insidious effects of physical and psychological health:
negative emotions; nervousness and anxiety (Cohn et al., 2004; Adler, 1943)
psychological and work-related problems (Leopold and Dillon, 1963; Henderson
and Bostock, 1977; Ploeger, 1972)
depression, anxiety, personality changes (Titchener and Kapp, 1976)
sleep disturbances and psychiatric problems (Gleser et al., 1981; Gleser et al.,
1978)
war-related dreams and aggravated assaults (Pennebaker and Harber, 1993)
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
21. Natural and human-made
traumatic events
Natural disasters Human disasters
Uncontrollable Loss of control
helplessness stress arousal
2004 IndianTsunami September 11 attacks
Baum et al., 1986
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
22. Natural and human-made traumatic events
Data
Articles in their early stage (after 500 revisions)
Out of 55 articles with at least 500 revisions
36 about events caused by man (e.g. “Fort Hood shooting”,
“2011 Norway attacks”)
Wikipedia’s categories, e.g. “Assassinations”, “Terrorist incidents”
19 about events caused by nature (e.g. “2004 Indian Ocean
earthquake and tsunami”, “2010 Haiti earthquake”)
Wikipedia’s categories, e.g. “2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season”, “1993
natural disasters”
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
23. Natural and human-made traumatic events
Hypotheses
Affective processes
Human-made disasters: loss of control (distress) higher anxiety,
anger
Natural disasters: uncontrollable (helplessness) higher sadness
Cognitive processes
Human-made disasters: loss of control higher cognitive processes
Social processes
Human-made disasters: increased orientation toward others + more
references to people higher social processes
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
24. Natural and human-made traumatic events
Results
* Human-made
*
traumatic events:
* more anxiety,
anger (blame)
Natural disasters:
more sadness
Affective processes Happy, hate, kiss (passive behavior)
Positive emotions Love, party, pleasant
Negative emotions Hurt, abuse, scary
Anxiety Worried, afraid
Anger Kill, aggression, destroy
Sadness Sad, cry, depression
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
25. Natural and human-made traumatic events
Results
Human-made
*
traumatic events:
need for
explanation is
* critical (unexpected
* *
loss of control)
Natural disasters:
Cognitive processes Cause, acknowledge, admit need for
Insight Think, assume, interpret
Causation Because, depend, elicit
explanation is less
Discrepancy Should, could, if pressing (nature is
Tentative Maybe, apparently, suppose uncontrollable)
Certainty Always, absolutely, clear
Inhibition Block, abstain, avoid
Inclusive And, add, along
Exclusive But, either, without
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
26. Natural and human-made traumatic events
Results
* Human-made
traumatic events:
higher social
orientation?
* more references
to people
(bomber’s family
or social relations)
Social processes Mate, guy, boy
Family Daughter, brother, dad
Friends Buddy, friend, mate
Humans Adult, children, girl
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
27. Considerations
Difficult definition of human-made and natural disasters
Wikipedia’s categories
But the distinction is not always clear-cut (“2011 Tōhoku
earthquake and tsunami”)
LIWC and other automated techniques
Limitations (psychological categories are subjective and
context-dependent)
Know your data (noise caused by bots, vandalism, templates)
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
28. Conclusions: Take-home message
Different psychological and sensemaking processes
underlying users editing activity
Specific patterns of emotional language
Arousal
stressful high
focused anger Man-made disasters activation
anger, anxiety
heavier effects
negative positive
Valence
passive responses Natural disasters
sadness
low
activation
Background Wikipedia LIWC Traum. - non traum. Old - recent Man - Nature Conclusions
A set of ideas and feelings about the past, built through discussion, public ceremonies, memorials (1) Lincoln memorial, (2) Jews, (3) Ocklaoma City bombings, (4) Washington memorial.
Because: - social sharing - increase of violence - psychological + health problems - good perspective for the study of collective memory processes - literature on cultural trauma research (trauma as cultural process)
This assumption is drawn from Halbwachs’s notion of collective memory (social function of memory: people feel united through the construction of a common past), the Assmanns’ discussion of communicative and cultural memory (everyday communication, interactive, informal VS objective, formal, well organized ), Nora’s memory places (any entity which has become a symbolic element of the memory heritage of a community) and Vansina’s ‘floating gap’ model (as the time goes by recent past – expressed in interactive communication - goes into the background, fading).