Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39250221›Full record

Observational studyJournal of medical Internet research2024

From Tweets to Streets: Observational Study on the Association Between Twitter Sentiment and Anti-Asian Hate Crimes in New York City from 2019 to 2022.

Hanxue Wei, Yulin Hswen, Junaid S Merchant, Laura B Drew, Quynh C Nguyen, Xiaohe Yue, Heran Mane, Thu T Nguyen

Abstract readObservational Study
In one paragraph

Observational study in Journal of medical Internet research, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Observational
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Hanxue WeiDepartment of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States.ORCID 0000-0001-6657-4048
Yulin HswenDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.ORCID 0000-0003-3203-1322
Junaid S MerchantDepartment of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of Maryland, Maryland, MD, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-4315-6211
Laura B DrewDepartment of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of Maryland, Maryland, MD, United States.ORCID 0000-0003-0895-7045
Quynh C NguyenDepartment of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of Maryland, Maryland, MD, United States.ORCID 0000-0003-4745-6681
Xiaohe YueDepartment of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of Maryland, Maryland, MD, United States.ORCID 0000-0001-5922-1949
Heran ManeDepartment of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of Maryland, Maryland, MD, United States.ORCID 0000-0001-8859-3282
Thu T NguyenDepartment of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of Maryland, Maryland, MD, United States.ORCID 0000-0003-1185-045X

Funding

Sci-Tech Core-Maryland Population Research CenterP2CHD041041 · NICHD · UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK · PI Susan W Parker · 2018 to 2026
$3.9M
Risk and strength: determining the impact of area-level sentiment and protective factors on birth outcomesR01MD015716 · NIMHD · UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK · PI NGUYEN, THU · 2021 to 2025
$3.6M
Rosie the Chatbot: Leveraging Automated and Personalized Health Information Communication to Reduce Disparities in Maternal and Child HealthR01MD016037 · NIMHD · UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK · PI NGUYEN, THU, NORELL, ELIZABETH MARIE · 2021 to 2025
$3.3M
Neighborhood Looking Glass: 360 Degree Automated Characterization of the Built Environment for Neighborhood Effects ResearchR01LM012849 · NLM · UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK · PI NGUYEN, QUYNH · 2018 to 2021
$1.3M
NICHD NIH HHS P2C HD041041NIMHD NIH HHS R01 MD015716NIMHD NIH HHS R01 MD016037NLM NIH HHS R01 LM012849
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAnti-Asian hate crimes escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, limited research has explored the association between social media sentiment and hate crimes toward Asian communities.

objectiveThis study aims to investigate the relationship between Twitter (rebranded as X) sentiment data and the occurrence of anti-Asian hate crimes in New York City from 2019 to 2022, a period encompassing both before and during COVID-19 pandemic conditions.

methodsWe used a hate crime dataset from the New York City Police Department. This dataset included detailed information on the occurrence of anti-Asian hate crimes at the police precinct level from 2019 to 2022. We used Twitter's application programming interface for Academic Research to collect a random 1% sample of publicly available Twitter data in New York State, including New York City, that included 1 or more of the selected Asian-related keywords and applied support vector machine to classify sentiment. We measured sentiment toward the Asian community using the rates of negative and positive sentiment expressed in tweets at the monthly level (N=48). We used negative binomial models to explore the associations between sentiment levels and the number of anti-Asian hate crimes in the same month. We further adjusted our models for confounders such as the unemployment rate and the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. As sensitivity analyses, we used distributed lag models to capture 1- to 2-month lag times.

resultsA point increase of 1% in negative sentiment rate toward the Asian community in the same month was associated with a 24% increase (incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.24; 95% CI 1.07-1.44; P=.005) in the number of anti-Asian hate crimes. The association was slightly attenuated after adjusting for unemployment and COVID-19 emergence (ie, after March 2020; P=.008). The positive sentiment toward Asian tweets with a 0-month lag was associated with a 12% decrease (IRR 0.88; 95% CI 0.79-0.97; P=.002) in expected anti-Asian hate crimes in the same month, but the relationship was no longer significant after adjusting for the unemployment rate and the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic (P=.11).

conclusionsA higher negative sentiment level was associated with more hate crimes specifically targeting the Asian community in the same month. The findings highlight the importance of monitoring public sentiment to predict and potentially mitigate hate crimes against Asian individuals.

Indexed as

COVID-19CrimeHateSocial MediaHumansNew York CityPandemicsSARS-CoV-2anti-Asianhate crimeracismsocial media, machine learning, sentiment analysisTwitter

Identifiers

PMID39250221
PMCPMC11420573

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.