Discussions of Asperger Syndrome on Social Media: Content and Sentiment Analysis on Twitter

Abstract

Background On May 8, 2021, Elon Musk, a well-recognized entrepreneur and business magnate, revealed on a popular television show that he has Asperger syndrome. Research has shown that people’s perceptions of a condition are modified when influential individuals in society publicly disclose their diagnoses. It was anticipated that Musk's disclosure would contribute to discussions on the internet about the syndrome, and also to a potential change in the perception of this condition. Objective The objective of this study was to compare the types of information contained in popular tweets about Asperger syndrome as well as their engagement and sentiment before and after Musk’s disclosure. Methods We extracted tweets that were published 1 week before and after Musk's disclosure that had received >30 likes and included the terms “Aspergers” or “Aspie.” The content of each post was classified by 2 independent coders as to whether the information provided was valid, contained misinformation, or was neutral. Furthermore, we analyzed the engagement on these posts and the expressed sentiment by using the AFINN sentiment analysis tool. Results We extracted a total of 227 popular tweets (34 posted the week before Musk’s announcement and 193 posted the week after). We classified 210 (92.5%) of the tweets as neutral, 13 (5.7%) tweets as informative, and 4 (1.8%) as containing misinformation. Both informative and misinformative tweets were posted after Musk’s disclosure. Popular tweets posted before Musk’s disclosure were significantly more engaging (received more comments, retweets, and likes) than the tweets posted the week after. We did not find a significant difference in the sentiment expressed in the tweets posted before and after the announcement. Conclusions The use of social media platforms by health authorities, autism associations, and other stakeholders has the potential to increase the awareness and acceptance of knowledge about autism and Asperger syndrome. When prominent figures disclose their diagnoses, the number of posts about their particular condition tends to increase and thus promote a potential opportunity for greater outreach to the general public about that condition.

Social media interventions for autistic individuals: Systematic review

“…Since most social media are of free use, the identification of successful interventions delivered through these channels could potentially help to extend these successful interventions to other individuals worldwide, including the developing world. Social media interventions can also be used to prevent misinformation about autism, and to spread important health information to both autistic persons and the general public (27,28). This can prevent myths and stereotypical views about autism to take hold.…”

“…The use of social media interventions for this group has a high potential as both autistic adolescents and youth (21)(22)(23)(24), as well as autistic adults are using these media in their daily lives (25,26). There is a wide debate around autism on social media (27,28), and a big community of autistic individuals uses these channels (29,30). However, little knowledge exists on the use or efficacy of using these media in interventions aimed at individuals with ASD.…”

What Do Autistic People Discuss on Twitter? An Approach Using BERTopic Modelling

“…Tweets are published within the public domain, and are frequently used in research [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Twitter provides Application Programing Interface (API), enabling programmatic extraction of the data.…”

“…Not much is known about what autistic individuals discuss on social media. Research identifying and analyzing discussions related to autism on social media exists [5][6][7][8]. However, the analyzed posts by these studies were non-specific and could have been posted by autistic people, or by other individuals interested in that topic.…”

Asperger Syndrome (AS): A Review Article

“…Additionally, some medical experts think they lack the necessary training to assess AS [ 32 ]. Also health officials, autism advocacy groups, and many other stakeholders use social media platforms to spread information and awareness on AS and autism [ 33 ]. Virtual reality (VR), a device-based simulation of reality wherein visual representations dependent on ordinary life situations are exhibited on a screen, is one platform that offers an opportunity to practice dynamic and real-world social interaction.…”