Attitudes toward outgroups in online intergroup contact during the initial phase: An examination of “TikTok Refugees” on Xiaohongshu (RED)

Despite empirical findings of the positive effect of online contact on outgroup attitudes, these studies mostly relied on Western samples and experimental designs. The current study used the “TikTok refugee” phenomenon on Xiaohongshu (RED), a widely used social media platform in China, to examine whether and how online intergroup contact shapes outgroup attitude in a naturalistic setting. We conducted sentiment analysis on the comments (n = 8268) posted under videos with the hashtag #tiktokrefugee created by Western and Chinese users, which were categorized as direct online contact and extended online contact, respectively. The results showed that Chinese users showed more positive emotional responses toward outgroup members during the initial phase in the direct online contact but less positive responses at the same period in the extended online contact. The word co-occurrence network of comments further indicated that intergroup interactions mainly focused on greetings and mutual helping in the direct online contact, whereas discussions on living costs and comparisons between the two groups were more prevalent in the extended online contact. The current work demonstrates the potential of social media as an important context for studying intergroup processes.