How Social Media Engagement Galvanize Consumer Animosity and Foreign Resistance Intention: The Role of Agonistic and Retreat Emotions

The rise of digital nationalism in China has raised questions about social media's potential to mobilize offline foreign resistance. Applying the cognitive-functional framework, this study surveyed 577 Chinese social media users to examine the interplay between social media engagement, emotional responses, and resistance intention vis-à-vis the Fukushima wastewater release crisis. Our results show that social media engagement significantly increases both types of negative emotional responses. Specifically, retreat emotions are significantly linked to resistance intention, whereas agonistic emotions do not directly predict these intentions but do so indirectly through animosity. This research illuminates the role of emotional dynamics in shaping public attitudes and mobilization in the digital age, further clarifying our understanding of the impact of social media in the context of digital nationalism.