Positive or Negative: Differences in Self–Other Representations Among Chinese Social Networking Users

Abstract

Abstract This study explored differences (positive or negative) in self–other representations among Chinese social networking (Weibo) users with high or low popularity. Through the crawling program of Python software, 413 Weibo users (180 male, 43.58%) with their 5,823 microblog updates were selected as participants. The variables in this study (i.e., self-representation, other representation, relational self, and positive and negative representations) used the word frequency of the corresponding words in the microblog text as an indicator. Results indicated that for high-popularity users and low-popularity users, their expressions of self-representation and relational self were both associated with the expressions of positive emotions in general. Specifically, the association between self-representation and positive emotions was higher among low-popularity users than high-popularity users, whereas the association between relational self and positive emotions was higher in high-popularity users than low-popularity users. Practical implications and future directions of this study's findings are discussed.