Are Punitive Comments on YouTube More Likely to Receive Likes? An Analysis Using Cosine Similarity and Hurdle Model

Citizen participation is essential for shaping penal policies, and the importance of online participation is growing in the contemporary era. This study examines how punitiveness spreads through social media by analyzing YouTube comments on crime-related videos. Using cosine similarity with a psychological scale measuring punitiveness, we assessed comment punitiveness and analyzed its relationship with likes, using a hurdle model. By analyzing 675,451 comments from 1,235 videos, we found that punitive comments received more likes. These findings suggest that social media engagement may reinforce punitiveness and highlight the potential risks associated with increasing societal punitiveness.