Why are there so many extreme opinions online?: An empirical, comparative analysis of Japan, Korea and the USA

What is it about?

This study tests the following hypothesis: "People with extreme opinions post on social media more than those with moderate opinions." A social media posting model was constructed to estimate the influence of extreme opinions on the number of social media posts in Japan, Korea, and the US. For a quantitative verification, the Tobit model was used in addition to a questionnaire survey of 5095 cases. The results show that extreme opinions were found to increase the number of social media posts in all three countries and for both surveyed topics (constitutional amendment in Japan and increasing number of foreigners in Japan, Korea, and the US). Furthermore, the higher the interest in the topic, the greater the effect. The hypothesis was thus supported.

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