3.2. Linguistic Difference
In this study, we compare the LIWC categories between the week before (T-before) and after (T-after) 20 January, shown in Table 2. It contains two types of LIWC categories: words of emotions and words of concerns. Words of emotions include positive emotion (e.g., faith, contentment, and blessing), negative emotion (e.g., worry, suspicion, and jealousy), anxiety (e.g., upset, nervous, and crazy), and anger (e.g., complaint). Words of concerns include health (e.g., insomnia, doctor, and exercise), leisure (e.g., cooking, chatting, and movies), family (e.g., family and house), friend (e.g., companion and guest), money (e.g., bills, cash, and borrowing), death (e.g., burial, killing, and funeral), and religion (e.g., church, mosque, and temple), which can reflect what people are paying attention to.
After 20 January, the number of words increased in positive emotion (t (17,747) = −24.411, p < 0.001), negative emotion (t (17,747) = −15.273, p < 0.001), and anxiety (t (17,747) = −15.294, p < 0.001). Word frequency significantly increased in the category “concerns,” including health (t (17,747) = −72.392, p < 0.05), family (t (17,747) = −12.571, p < 0.001), death (t (17,747) = −6.707, p < 0.001), and religion (t (17,747) = −13.816, p < 0.001), but decreased in leisure (t (17,747) = 21.963, p < 0.001) and friend (t (17,747) = 6.202, p < 0.001).