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Some of the best research questions begin in the classroom. A new publication by political scientist A. Burcu Bayram and psychologist Vivian P. Ta-Johnson (UT San Antonio) in the journal Political Psychology is an example of how class discussions with engaged and insightful students can inspire innovative research.
The central question behind this new publication grew directly from Bayram's conversations with students in her courses on the politics of international law and human security about the war in Ukraine and the extraordinary international attention and solidarity that followed Russia's 2022 invasion.
Students raised questions that ultimately helped inspire the project: What happens to that intense social media engagement as a war drags on? Do people simply lose interest? At what point does attention begin to shift elsewhere, such as to national events, other global crises or a video of a dog doing a funny trick?
The resulting article, "A Complex Arc of Engagement: Shifting Psychological Trajectories of International Solidarity During Sustained Geopolitical Conflict," takes an interdisciplinary approach to answering these questions.
Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), Bayram and Ta-Johnson analyze more than 1.2 million English-language tweets from the first 10 months of the Russian-Ukrainian War, treating language as a window into how international audiences psychologically experienced a prolonged geopolitical conflict.
Rather than looking only at whether public attention increased or declined, the study examines changes across multiple dimensions, including active and passive engagement, emotion, existential concerns, cognition and psychological distance.
The findings reveal a much more complicated story than one of people simply "losing interest" in this conflict. Early discourse was characterized by intense engagement, negative emotion, concern with death, conflict and morality, and substantial cognitive effort devoted to making sense of unfolding events.
As the war continued, many of these indicators declined: posts became shorter, retweeting fell and emotional and cognitive expression became less complex. Surprisingly, psychological distance also decreased over time, suggesting that people expressed themselves in more personal ways as the conflict became part of the global digital landscape.
The study offers a new way of thinking about international solidarity during prolonged crises as a multidimensional psychological process that evolves over time.
The results challenge the view that declining engagement means disengagement and instead reveal a psychological shift toward more grounded, personally meaningful forms of involvement. Bayram and Ta-Johnson's findings highlight the need for communication and policy frameworks that account for the evolving nature of psychological engagement across the life span of a crisis.
More informationVivian P. Ta‐Johnson et al., A complex arc of engagement: Shifting psychological trajectories of international solidarity during sustained geopolitical conflict, Political Psychology (2026). DOI: 10.1111/pops.70200
Who's behind this story?
Sadie HarleyBSc Life Sciences & Ecology. Microbiology lab background with pharmaceutical news experience in oil, gas, and renewable industries. Full profile →
Andrew ZininMaster's in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X's editorial success. Full profile →
Citation: Social media analysis reveals how international solidarity shifts during prolonged conflict (2026, October 26) retrieved 27 October 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-10-social-media-analysis-reveals-international.html
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