Exploration of Gender Differences in COVID-19 Discourse on Reddit
This research provides insights into gender-linked language patterns in online pandemic discussions, but it is incremental as it confirms existing assumptions with new data.
The study analyzed gender differences in language on Reddit, confirming that existing assumptions about affective distinctions are amplified in emotionally-charged COVID-19 discourse, with considerable differences in topical preferences between male and female authors.
Decades of research on differences in the language of men and women have established postulates about preferences in lexical, topical, and emotional expression between the two genders, along with their sociological underpinnings. Using a novel dataset of male and female linguistic productions collected from the Reddit discussion platform, we further confirm existing assumptions about gender-linked affective distinctions, and demonstrate that these distinctions are amplified in social media postings involving emotionally-charged discourse related to COVID-19. Our analysis also confirms considerable differences in topical preferences between male and female authors in spontaneous pandemic-related discussions.