Assertion, Repetition, Contagion: Generative Mechanisms and Responses to Social Death

Abstract

Online public opinion gradually evolves into a phenomenon where opinion leaders guide the digital public to commit cyber violence against the public opinion target, eventually leading to the social death of the public opinion target. The role of each opinion subject in the social death of individuals can be analyzed through the mechanisms of assertion, repetition, and contagion transmission proposed by Gustave Le Bon. Opinion makers shape specific events and characters, utilizing assertions to enhance the narrative power and satisfy the psychological image of the media and the public. On this basis, opinion leaders, mainly the media, direct the psychological tendency of the public by spreading assertions more widely through repetition. The participants in public opinion fix assertions on the cross of their moral judgment through the implication of assertion and repetition. Breaking this mechanism requires proprietary measures aimed at the three subjects. First, reduce the power of assertions by identifying ambiguous information and blaming the rumormonger afterward. Second, control the degree of repetition by increasing the responsibility of online media and clarifying effectively. Third, avoid the spread of contagion by improving the quality of Internet users.