Tweet you right back: Follower anxiety predicts leader anxiety in social media interactions during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Psychogios, Alexandros and Gruda, Dritjon and Adegboyega, Ojo (2023) Tweet you right back: Follower anxiety predicts leader anxiety in social media interactions during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. PLOS ONE, 18 (2). ISSN 1932-6203

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Abstract

Recent research has shown that organizational leaders’ tweets can influence their employees’ anxiety. In this study, we turn the table and examine whether the same can be said about followers’ tweets. Based on emotional contagion and a dataset of 108 leaders and 178 followers across 50 organizations, we infer and track state- and trait-anxiety scores of participants over 316 days, including pre- and post the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and crisis. We show that although leaders traditionally possess greater authority and power than their followers, followers have the power to influence their leaders’ state anxiety. In addition, this influence is particularly strong in the case of less trait anxious leaders. Overall, this study provides strong evidence of a bidirectional emotional contagion effect between leaders and followers in a social media context.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number:	10.1371/journal.pone.0279164
Dates:	Date Event 31 January 2023 Accepted 9 February 2023 Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords:	anxiety, leadership, followership, bidirectionality, emotional contagion, machine learning
Subjects:	CAH04 - psychology > CAH04-01 - psychology > CAH04-01-02 - applied psychology CAH17 - business and management > CAH17-01 - business and management > CAH17-01-04 - management studies CAH17 - business and management > CAH17-01 - business and management > CAH17-01-05 - human resource management
Divisions:	Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > College of Accountancy, Finance and Economics Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > College of Business, Digital Transformation & Entrepreneurship
Depositing User:	Alexandros Psychogios
Date Deposited:	15 Feb 2023 11:49
Last Modified:	20 Jun 2024 12:05
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/14186

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