Reason and passion in public discussion on Sina Weibo

This study aimed to explore the relationship between reason and passion on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo, with an emphasis on the coexistence of emotional and rational arguments as well as how they predict message retransmission. It found that public discussions on the microblogging site are mostly emotional. However, advanced reasoning was also present in emotional discussions, which manifested itself in making appeals to the common good and using logical coherence. Although emotion and rationality are not mutually exclusive, they do produce different retransmission outcomes, with emotion positively related to reposts and the appeal to the common good receiving fewer shares.