Extending emotional contagion theory using user-Generated content in sports tourism vlogs

Abstract

This research note examines how emotions are activated and socially sustained in user-generated content (UGC) comment spaces in sport tourism vlogs. Drawing on Emotional Contagion Theory and multidimensional affect frameworks, the study analyses YouTube comments on sport tourism football vlogs to move beyond outcome-oriented and sentiment-based approaches to emotion. Findings show that viewer emotions are systematically activated by shared emotional drivers: players, atmosphere, physical structure, and game experience, and cluster into four affective states across the valence–arousal space: joy, satisfaction, disappointment, and boredom. Rather than functioning as individual reactions, emotions circulate through asynchronous co-witnessing in comment threads, where they are reinforced and sustained. Notably, interest emerges as a contagious emotion across all states, underpinning prolonged engagement and exploration beyond emotional peaks. By theorising comments as sites of emotional production, this study advances understanding of relational emotion dynamics in digital sport tourism contexts.