Collective Emotions on Social Media: An Examination of Collective Emotions in YouTube Comment Sections Below New Videos and Their Political Consequences

This study analyzed 6,000 user comments on YouTube videos from ABC, CNN, and Fox News featuring Kamala Harris and Donald Trump during the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Extending Collins’ interaction ritual theory and integrating affective publics, our analysis reveals how YouTube comment sections function as digital rituals that both reinforce and contest political identities. We identified four dominant patterns of emotional discourse: emotional contagion, polarization, group allegiance, and collective emotional resilience. Seemingly, moments of shared grief and empathy foster affective counter-publics that resist dominant emotional regimes. These findings illustrate how collective emotions on YouTube are performative, ambivalent, and politically consequential, potentially shaping ideological boundaries and symbolic resistance in digital publics.