SOCIAL IDENTITY MODEL OF COLLECTIVE ACTION
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Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica
2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 845-850 845
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.115
ANALYSIS ON THE POPULARITY OF CHINESE SHARP WORDS BASED ON
SOCIAL IDENTITY MODEL OF COLLECTIVE ACTION
Libo Zhao1,2, Xuefeng Feng1*
Abstract
Recent years has seen the proliferation of Chinese sharp words, both online and in real life. From the
perspective of social psychology, this paper attributes the popularity of these words to collective behaviors.
The social identity model of collective action (SIMCA) was introduced to analyze the reasons for the popularity
of Chinese sharp words from three dimensions, namely, collective identity, collective mood and collective
efficacy. On this basis, the author summed up the collective psychological law in the spread and popularity of
sharp words. The research provides new insights into the application of psychological theory in linguistic
analysis.
Key words: Sharp Words, Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA), Collective
Identity, Collective Mood, Collective Efficacy.
Received: 07-02-19 | Accepted: 13-07-19
INTRODUCTION Chinese network language life. According to our
statistics, at least 56 sharp words with great
There is a kind of words in Chinese network
influence appeared in Chinese language in 2016
language life, which are formed against events or
phenomena and have significant spreading and 2017.
The sharp words is a new concept put
effect in a certain period of time, such as
forward in the field of Chinese Linguistics and
"drinking water to death," "sex picture scandal,"
"clickbait," and "Buddha-like", which are known the related research is mainly concentrated in
China. Scholars mainly study from the linguistic
as "sharp words". The early sharp words are just
perspective, such as the connotation and
language games popular among a few people.
essence of sharp words; the characteristics of
With the rapid development of the Internet in
China in recent years, the number of netizens sharp words; the influence and specification of
sharp words; the variation of sharp words and so
has been increasing, and the influence of sharp
on. Although scholars have done some research
words has been increasing. A lot of sharp words
attract high attention because of the events on sharp words, it has not yet made a more in-
behind, the style of words with concise and vivid depth explanation to the reasons for its
popularity, which makes our understanding of
meaning enables the netizens to imitate and
this phenomenon of language superficial, and
spread without hesitation, which sets off one
after another language revelry. Nowadays, sharp then fail to recognize the internal mechanism for
its widespread acceptance and dissemination.
words have become an important part of
The popularity of a language form is
influenced by many factors, including lingual,
1 School of Chinese Language and Literature, Wuhan
University, Wuhan 430072, China. 2School of Literature,
social, cultural, and psychological aspects. The
Journalism & Communication, South-central University for basic reason is that the language form conforms
Nationalities, Wuhan 430074, China. to the social psychological needs of the language
E-Mail: 157359801@qq.com
users. Under the framework of the social identity
model of collective action (SIMCA), this paper
REVISTA ARGENTINA
2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 845-850 DE CLÍNICA PSICOLÓGICA846 LIBO ZHAO, XUEFENG FENG
analyzes the social psychological reasons for the empirical research, some scholars constructed
popularity of sharp words in Chinese, and various predictive models, some of them have
summarizes the collective psychological law great influence, as well as shortcomings
embodied in the dissemination and popularity of inevitably. (Simon, Loewy, Stürmer et al., 1998;
sharp words. We believe that the social Smith, Cronin, & Kessler, 2008; Van Zomeren,
psychological analysis of sharp words can Spears, Fischer et al., 2004). Van Zomeren et al.
expand the perspective of the study of sharp (2008) integrated previous studies and used
words, enrich the research methods of sharp meta-analysis based on the results of studies on
words, and further enhance our understanding collective behaviors for many years to show that
of the essence of sharp words and network identity, injustice and efficacy are antecedent
catchwords. variables that influence the individuals’
participation in the collective behavior. Among
them, identity can not only directly predict
COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR PROMOTING THE collective behavior, but also act on the injustice
POPULARITY OF CHINESE SHARP WORDS variable and efficacy variable to indirectly affect
collective action. In other words, the identity
From the perspective of social psychology,
variable can be regarded as an adjustment
the rapid popularity and wide spread of a
discourse form is driven by collective behavior. variable, and the other two variables can be
linked together in the form of a conceptual
Modern social psychology believes that
bridge. (See Figure 1).
collective behavior is the behavior conducted by
many people gathering in crowds and it is not
subject to existing social norms and usually has Figure 1. Social Identity Model of Collective
no clear objectives or action plans. The Action (SIMCA)
popularity of sharp words is the result of the
joint efforts of the massive collective of
"netizens". According to the 43rd Statistical
Report on China Internet Development released
by the China Internet Network Information
Center (CNNIC), by December 2018, the number
of Chinese netizens had reached 829 million,
with 56.53 million new netizens added in the
whole year, and the Internet penetration rate
was 59.6%, up 3.8% from the end of
2017.(http://www.cac.gov.cn/2019-
02/28/c_1124175677.htm). Such a large number
of netizens has laid a solid foundation for the
spread and popularity of Chinese sharp words.
Therefore, when a sharp word meets the needs SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL MOTIVATIONS FOR
of the collective communication of netizens, it THE POPULARITY OF SHARP WORDS
will spread and prevail quickly. Then, with the help of the Social Identity
Model of Collective Action (SIMCA), this study
analyzes the social psychological motivations for
SOCIAL IDENTITY MODEL OF COLLECTIVE the popularity of sharp words.
ACTION (SIMCA)
Collective behavior has always been the focus Collective identity
of sociology, psychology, politics, economics, Sharp words, mainly created by netizens, are
philosophy and so on. From a psychological point spread through and popular in the network
of view, scholars in the past have explained the community. The network community is actually
psychological mechanism of collective behavior, a kind of real community which is different from
including the social identity theory, relative the organic communities. The main body of the
deprivation theory, resource mobilization theory network community is the netizens, who gather
and so on. In recent years, based on the because of the common interest or goal. In this
combination of theoretical interpretation and kind of collective, most of the collective
members are unfamiliar or not connected at all,
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2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 845-850 DE CLÍNICA PSICOLÓGICAANALYSIS ON THE POPULARITY OF CHINESE SHARP WORDS BASED ON SOCIAL IDENTITY MODEL OF COLLECTIVE ACTION 847
but the relationship between the individuals and phenomenon of language conformity often leads
the collective is very close, which mainly comes to negative effects, the most prominent of which
from the identity of the netizens. is the phenomenon of language violence and
Sharp words are words created against the language discrimination. Le Bon (1985) put
background of social hot events or phenomena, forward the idea of "collective unconscious" in
and these words have obvious social attributes. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, and
As a grassroots class in society, netizens often proposed that "The crowd is always dominated
have a limited right to speak in social life. And by considerations of which it is unconscious—
the virtuality and anonymity of the network The disappearance of brain activity and the
provides a good platform for netizens, who try to predominance of medullar activity—The
deconstruct the official relationship in real life. lowering of the intelligence and the complete
In this process, netizens will generally have a transformation of the sentiments—The
strong sense of collective identity, which transformed sentiments may be better or worse
includes both self-identity and social identity, than those of the individuals of which the crowd
identified not only by the collectives with the is composed—A crowd is as easily heroic as
same opinion, but also by those with mainstream criminal."; Stoner (1961) further established the
ideology. Therefore, the netizens strongly theoretical system of " group polarization." It is
admire the sharp words that express social considered that "group polarization" means that
problems or collective anxiety, making them some group members have a certain bias from
particularly popular, and the sharp words such as the beginning and most members will approach
"rich second generation", "official second to the direction of the bias through group
generation" and "dismantled second discussion and mutual influence until an extreme
generation" show the netizens' dissatisfaction point of view is finally formed. Noelle-Neumann
with relevant people and draw a clear break with (1974) went further, and he thinks that man
them in identity. always tries to seek the identity of others from
On the one hand, collective identity makes his surroundings to avoid falling into isolation.
members learn to use collective expression and This is why collective members often engage
behavior; on the other hand, it also leads to the with mob leaders in response to environmental
phenomenon of deindividuation. pressures, resulting in language violence or
Deindividuation refers to the weakening of self- language discrimination. Sharp words with the
directed function or the loss of sense of characteristics of language violence, such as
responsibility of individuals under the influence "Single Dog", "Dream Bitch". Sharp words with
of collective pressure or consciousness, resulting the color of language discrimination include
in some behaviors that will not occur in "People outside the Fifth Ring Road", "Leftover
individual activities. In the process of collective Lady Times", "Greasy Middle-aged" and so on.
identity, the individuality of collective members
is weakened, and their self-consciousness is Collective mood
subordinate to the collective consciousness, so The "injustice" variable in the SIMCA refers to
that the behavior of conformity appears in the that the collective members have produced the
use of language, which leads to the spread and injustice subjectively in the process of social
popularity of some language forms. For example, comparison. In order to express the negative
after a sharp word is popular on the network, the mood produced hereby, people choose to
netizens make so full of use that individuals who participate in the collective action. Thus, this
do not know the meaning of the word may have variable actually refers to the mood variable in
the psychological pressure to integrate into the collective action. The study of collective mood in
collective. And when the sharp word enters the social psychology focuses on the aspect of anger.
real language life from the network language Mummendey et al. show that anger is an
life, its use by the surrounding people will important inducer of collective action and has a
increase the integration pressure, and finally positive predictive effect on collective action
urge the individuals to understand and use these (Mummendey, Kessler, Klink et al., 1999; Walker
sharp words. Therefore, conformity psychology & Smith, 2002). Among sharp words, "Drinking
is an important reason to promote the popular water to death", "Washing the face to death”,
sharp words to further expand their influence. and "Watching football to death" clearly show
It should be pointed out here that the the questioning of netizens to the strange death
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2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 845-850 DE CLÍNICA PSICOLÓGICA848 LIBO ZHAO, XUEFENG FENG
in the related cases and the strong indignation list for 94 times. Among them, with the topic
against law enforcement and judicial injustice. "Buddha-like lost owner", "Don't boast of your
In addition to anger, there are two other Buddha-like life" and "Buddha-like school
collective moods that play an important role in flower", it climbed to the top for three times,
the popularity of sharp words. One is anxiety, for with extremely high popularity. Eventually, the
example, "Price increase era" manifests the total number of topic searches related to the
public concern about soaring prices of materials; word "Buddha-like" reaches 6,706,942, which is
"Smog Face", "Smog Refugee" and "Smog highly replicative. (Since Sina Weibo does not
Poverty" indicate the deep concern of netizens officially provide historical inquiries about the
about environmental problems. Another kind of popular search lists, the data we use is provided
mood is the pessimistic or negative mood of from a big data service company called
netizens under the increasing pressure of life, "Enlightent", whose URL is
which is often reflected in some sharp words http://www.enlightent.com/research/rank/wei
with obvious self-mockery, such as "Empty Nest boSearchRank. Data collected on April 8, 2019) A
Youth", "Greasy Middle-aged" and "Buddha- comprehensive analysis shows the reasons for
like". Among them, the most influential and the popularity of "Buddha-like", including strong
most representative is the word "Buddha-like". productivity of forms, the media's vigorous
"Buddha-like" appeared on the Internet at the promotion, and so on, but the most fundamental
end of 2017, and then attracted numerous reason is that the mood contained in the word is
netizens, especially young netizens born in the accepted and recognized by Chinese netizens,
1980s and 1990s. For a while, related articles, especially the younger generation in the 1980s
reviews and emoticons became popular online. and 1990s, who are in the beginning or rising
With the help of Baidu Index and Sina Weibo stage of their careers. Coupled with the drastic
Popular Search List, we investigated the search changes in society, and under great pressure,
and use of the word "Buddha-like" in Baidu and they live a fast-paced life of fatigue, which has
Sina, and found that the word spread quickly, become a normal part of their lives. Thus, among
with a wide range of influence and a large these young people, a so-called "Sadness
number of derivative words, making it unrivaled Culture" began to prevail, and they gradually like
among many popular words. In www.baidu.com, those words, characters and emoticons with
the number of searches for "Buddha-like" was pessimistic, decadent and despair. Words like
zero on December 11,2017, began to soar on "Buddha-like" give them an outlet to vent their
December 12, and then began to decline slightly feelings, and they boast that " Buddha-like life"
after peaking at 50,363 on December 15. But is actually a way to relieve stress and express
before January 6, 2018, the number of searches emotions.
per day was no less than 10,000, which is the
soaring period of the public opinion on "Buddha- Figure 2. "Buddha-like" Baidu search trends
like". After that, the number of searches began (Data from Baidu Index; Collected in
to fall back gradually, and the number of December 2017 to April 2019)
searches on other dates remained stable at a
high level, except that soared to 23,309 on
January 25, 2018. Until April 2019, after a year of
popularity, its daily searches can still be
maintained more than 2,000 times, and 2,000
times is very high for a network word. (See
Figure 2) Meanwhile, "Buddha-like" has also
performed well on Sina Weibo's popular search
list. It made its debut on the popular search list
on November 13, 2017, with the topic of
"Buddha-like pursuing stars" on the list. But it
wasn't very popular, with the highest ranking
ever at 36 only for 20 minutes on the list. After COLLECTIVE EFFICACY
that, "Buddha-like" began to dominate the list, The concept of "collective efficacy" was
and as of April 8, 2019, the statistical time of the proposed by Bandura, this concept is used to
study, "Buddha-like" was on the popular search explain the behavior of collectives. It refers to
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2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 845-850 DE CLÍNICA PSICOLÓGICAANALYSIS ON THE POPULARITY OF CHINESE SHARP WORDS BASED ON SOCIAL IDENTITY MODEL OF COLLECTIVE ACTION 849
the collective belief in the ability of members of in collective mood, collective efficacy and
a collective to gather together for achieve a collective behavior. Of course, the popularity of
particular goal in a given situation (Little & most sharp words is more or less affected by
Madigan, 1997; Bandura, 1997). In the efficacy- three factors, but the main driving forces of
driven path, collective and collective members different sharp words are not the same.
are often rational, and the latter tends to be
more willing to participate in collective behavior
when they think they have sufficient resources CONCLUSIONS
and capabilities (Bandura, 2001; Hornsey,
In the current Chinese language life, a large
Blackwood, Louis et al., 2006). Previous social number of sharp words appear every year, and
psychology studies have shown that collective some of them are quite popular on the Internet.
efficacy has a positive predictive effect on
We believe that the popularity of these new
collective action in a certain sense (Van
words is not only a language issue, but also a
Zomeren, Saguy, & Schellhaas, 2013; Cohen- psychological issue. From the perspective of
Chen, Halperin, Saguy et al., 2014; Saab, Tausch,
social psychology, the rapid spread of sharp
Spears et al., 2016; Chan, 2016).
words is the result of collective behavior. The
Chinese sharp words are often based on hot
netizen has formed a collective that spreads
news events or social phenomena. Sometimes, sharp words temporarily either because of
these events and phenomena are related to the
common mood or for the same benefit, and they
vital interests of netizens, which makes sharp
have higher collective identity in this collective.
words from the date of their emergence as a tool On the surface, this collective behavior is a
for expressing "voice of the masses". As Chinese
process of spreading and using sharp words, but
government departments attach more and more
it is essentially a process of collective members'
importance to the supervision of public opinion
identity, emotional expression, or promoting the
on the Internet, netizens have more and more maximization of collective interests.
confidence in the collective efficacy of their own
collective, and more sharp words are generated
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