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Comparative analysis of sentiments towards different stigmatized groups on social media platforms in Spain

Abstract:

Social media platforms have become critical spaces for the dissemination of negative, toxic, intolerant, and discriminatory sentiments and messages targeting stigmatized minority groups defined by their ethnicity, religion, culture, origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation. This article presents a sentiment analysis applied to Spanish-language messages on X, Instagram, and Facebook about migrants, Muslims, Jews, the LGBTIQ+ community, and the Roma population in Spain. The SentiStrength tool analyzed 523,374 messages containing keywords related to these groups. The results show that Instagram and Facebook promote a more favorable environment, with slightly positive latent sentiment averages towards these stigmatized communities. In contrast, X is characterized by a higher prevalence of negative sentiments in the messages analyzed overall. In terms of comparisons between groups, the most negative average sentiment was found in messages related to Jews and migrants, particularly on X. Conversely, the messages in which the most positive latent sentiment average was found related to the Roma community and LGBTIQ+ groups.