Iranians' emotional expression on social media and its impact on audience engagement

Asa Berger, Arthur; Sabbar, Shaho; Shahghasemi, Ehsan

doi:10.22059/jcountst.2026.412819.1480

Iranians' emotional expression on social media and its impact on audience engagement

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original

Authors

Arthur Asa Berger ¹

Shaho Sabbar ²

Ehsan Shahghasemi ³

¹ Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts, San Francisco State University, United States.

² Department of Iranian Studies, Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

³ Department of Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

10.22059/jcountst.2026.412819.1480

Abstract

This study explores the role of emotional language in shaping audience engagement on social media, with a specific focus on Persian-language discourse on Platform X. With a pragmatic approach and using a dataset of 18,900 social media posts spanning four diverse topics— diplomatic events, cultural celebrations, media controversies, and student perspectives— this research applies sentiment analysis and statistical modeling to examine how emotional intensity influences user interactions. Our findings reveal that posts expressing anger generate the highest levels of engagement, while happy sentiments also contribute positively. Conversely, extreme negativity, such as furious expressions, tends to reduce engagement. Additionally, the study highlights the role of polarized discussions in attracting user attention, with politically charged and controversial topics outperforming others. A Generalized Linear Model (GLM) with a Tweedie distribution confirms the significant impact of emotional language, demonstrating that heightened emotional intensity correlates with increased audience responses. The study also considers the implications of emotional language for misinformation, polarization, and digital discourse quality.

Keywords

emotional language

Persian social media

polarization

sentiment analysis

social media engagement

Subjects

Culture

حوزة موضوعی: ایران

Scope: Iran

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