Computational Analysis of Emotions and Topics in Survivor Interviews about Nanking Massacre

1. Abstract

In survivor interviews, often the interviewee’s deep feelings or attitudes towards their painful memories or experiences is the focus of the conversation. Past research has shown that sensitive interviews such as survivor interviews affect the emotional state of the interviewee. In this project, we explored this aspect in the survivor interviews about Nanking Massacre. Specifically, we examined the major types of interviewees’ emotions (e.g., fear, sadness, fear). in the interviews, where they occur during the interview turns, and the interviewers’ emotions near those turns. In addition, we applied topic modelling analysis to explore the number of topics in these interviews and how different topics are related to the different emotions.

Lu Xiao (lxiao04@syr.edu), Syracuse University, United States of America, Jianyi Liu , Syracuse University, United States of America, Wenchao Zhai , Syracuse University, United States of America and Liangqin Jiang , Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

Theme: Lux by Bootswatch.