The Emotional Mechanisms behind the 2019-2020 Hong Kong Protests

• In Event: Poster Session: Frontiers in Conflict Processes

Abstract

Authoritarian regimes tend to use mass arrests to silence dissent from civil society. However, it is shown that governmental repression cannot always deter the challenges but stir up escalations. For the radicalization effect of repression on backlash protests, there are not enough large-N quantitative studies testing the mechanisms behind it. Using data obtained from Hong Kong’s popular social networking site LIHKG forum, this paper aims to study the emotional mechanism behind the 2019-2020 Hong Kong Protests. My results of text analysis show that the topics of social media posts during the movements are mainly divided into three categories: hatred, unity, and mobilization. It shows that harsh repression unexpectedly provokes collective emotions like hatred and unity, which instigates more collective mobilization for the sake of voicing dissent. My study has implications for social movements and protest-repression nexus: it is harder for government repression to achieve the desired effect in the digital era.

Author

• Tianhui Wu, The University of Iowa