Collective Moralism Toward K-pop Idols on DC Inside: Sentiment Analysis of a South Korean Online Community

• In Event: Joint Roundtables: Social Psychology Section and Sociology of Emotions Section
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 1 - Morality, Collective Energy, & Prosocial Behavior

Abstract

As K-pop idols have emerged as global cultural brands, controversies surrounding them have expanded beyond entertainment news into arenas of moral evaluation and critical public opinion in which both fandom and the broader public actively participate. This study empirically examines how critical public opinion within fandom is facilitated or mitigated by the institutional design of online platforms, situating the analysis in the context of the high moral expectations placed on idols in South Korea and the country’s distinctive form of collective moralism. To do so, the study focuses on the anonymity structure of DCInside, the most large-scale Korean online community, and tests whether speakers’ identifiability significantly shapes the emotional direction of controversy discourse. In particular, we examine the platform’s dual user-identification system—fixed usernames (identifiable and identity-sustaining) and ephemeral usernames (low-identifiability and temporary identity markers)—as an institutionalized condition of participation in online discussion. Using sentiment analysis, I analyze 122,277 controversy-related posts collected from 56 DCInside gallery boards dedicated to K-pop idols from the second generation onward, and estimate multiple regression models. The results show that lower speaker identifiability is associated with stronger negative and condemnatory sentiments in text. These findings suggest that platform-level designs of anonymity and identifiability may shape not only the formation of critical public opinion but also the intensification of conflict, polarization, and punitive affect often associated with digital vigilantism. By conceptualizing anonymity as a stratified and platform-institutionalized condition of discursive participation, this study proposes an analytical framework for explaining how moralistic practices in K-pop fandom are organized and amplified in digital public spheres.

Authors

• Seong-Gwon Cho, SungKyunKwan University

• Jeong-Woo Koo, Sungkyunkwan University

• Minseok Gim, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea.