Abstract
This study examines how confinement measures established during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis affected the emotions of the population. For this purpose, public sentiment on social media and digital ecosystems in Spain is analyzed. We identified affective tones towards media and citizens published on social media focusing on six basic emotions: anger, fear, joy, sadness, disgust and uncertainty. The main contribution of this work is the evidence of contagious sentiments and, consequently, the possibility of using this new dimension of social media as a form of a “collective therapy”. This paper contributes to understanding the impact of confinement measures in a pandemic from the point of view of emotional health. This analysis provides a set of practical implications that can guide conceptual and empirical work in health crisis management with an alternative approach, especially useful for decision-making processes facing emergency responses and health crises, even in an unprecedented global health crisis such as the traumatic events caused by the COVID-19 disease.
Highlights
The world is dealing with a health crisis unparalleled in this era that underscores a negative side of globalization
This research responds to the lack of research on the intersection of emotional responses during crisis situations and, to those related to public health and social media [5]
The findings of this study provide valuable insights based on the repository of emotional content of a traumatic event such as COVID-19
Summary
The world is dealing with a health crisis unparalleled in this era that underscores a negative side of globalization. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 global pandemic in March 2020. This kind of respiratory disease had already caused both widespread death and cases of infections in Wuhan (China) since 2019, the health crisis did not show its true dimensions in Europe up until February and March 2020. Spain was one of the countries most affected by COVID-19, establishing a nationwide state of alarm on March 14, 2020. The social distancing, self-isolation and quarantine measures in Spain were radical and without precedent; such as the strict stay-at-home instruction for most of the citizens lasting almost two months, and ending with a progressive de-confinement process starting in the first week of May 2020
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