Author Information
Mei Asakawa, Nagoya University, JapanYibo Zhang, Nagoya University, Japan
Abstract
It is human nature to express emotional support for suffering. Attribution theory (Weiner, 1985, 1986) posits that emotional support is shaped by the way one assigns the cause of tragedy. When a tragedy is perceived as uncontrollable, people are more likely to express empathy, whereas when an event is seen controllable, they tend to search for its underlying causes. However, few studies have examined these dynamics cross-cultural, real-time, and online settings across multiple cultures. Thus, the present study examined how online commenters responded to two different types of death-related tragedy (suicide and natural disasters) across four national contexts: Italy, Japan, the United States, and China. Using a comparative content-analysis design, 240 top-voted comments were analyzed. Across samples, uncontrollable tragedies elicited more emotional support than suicide-related deaths, consistent with Attribution Theory. However, there were significant differences in emotional support and attribution across cultures. Italian and Chinese suicide-related comments were dominated by blame and externalization, and discussed who was responsible for a tragedy. Japanese and U.S. comments were empathic, except that U.S. comments involved more self-disclosure (i.e., suicide survivor) and solutions to prevent suicide. For natural disasters, the Japanese and the U.S. comments were primarily supportive. Italian comments still remained strongly blame-oriented. However, Chinese comments emphasized solidarity more. These findings suggest that online emotional support is shaped not only by event controllability but also by culturally patterned norms of support expression.
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