Gender-Based Analysis of User Reactions to Facebook Posts

Abstract

Online Social Networks (OSNs) are based on the sharing of different types of information and on various interactions (comments, reactions, and sharing). One of these important actions is the emotional reaction to the content. The diversity of reaction types available on Facebook (namely FB) enables users to express their feelings, and its traceability creates and enriches the users' emotional identity in the virtual world. This paper is based on the analysis of 119875012 FB reactions (Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, Angry, Thankful, and Pride) made at multiple levels (publications, comments, and sub-comments) to study and classify the users' emotional behavior, visualize the distribution of different types of reactions, and analyze the gender impact on emotion generation. All of these can be achieved by addressing these research questions: who reacts the most? Which emotion is the most expressed?