Story99.com is a Branding & Storytelling Consultancy for B2B, Tech & Deeptech

Some Feelings Make Us Comment, While Others Make Us Share

First let’s make sure we know the difference between feelings and emotions:

• Emotions → actual biological and psychological response that our body generates

• Feelings → how we label and describe these emotions / responses

To understand feelings better, psychologists often use something called the Valence–Arousal–Dominance model (VAD).

The VAD model

• Valence tells us whether the emotional tone is pleasant or unpleasant

• Arousal tells us how much energy the feeling carries, and

• Dominance tells us whether the reader (the content consumer) feels in control or overwhelmed

Together, they can help explain why a mildly useful post may be saved but not shared, why an outrageous post may get hundreds of comments, why an inspiring story travels across networks, and why negative news can spread even when it makes people feel bad.

Valence

Valence is about whether the feeling is pleasant or unpleasant.

Joy, amusement, pride, gratitude, relief, love, and inspiration are positive-valence feelings. Fear, anger, sadness, disgust, shame, guilt, and frustration are negative-valence feelings.

This is the easiest axis to understand because it is basically the emotional good-to-bad scale. Did the content make me feel good or bad? Warm or disturbed? Hopeful or unsettled?

Arousal

High-energy → high on arousal and vice-versa.

Some feelings are high-energy: anger, fear, excitement, awe, panic, surprise. They wake the body up. They push you toward action. They create an urge to respond.

Other feelings are low-energy: calm, sadness, contentment, boredom, resignation, relief. These feelings are slower. They may still be meaningful, but they do not always create an immediate urge to act.

This is why anger and excitement can look similar in behavior even though one is negative and the other is positive. Both are high-arousal states. Both make people more alert, expressive, and reactive.

Dominance (control)

Dominance is the most underused but probably the most useful dimension for anyone working in storytelling, marketing, journalism, or social media. Dominance refers to the degree of control or agency someone feels.

High-dominance feelings make people feel in control, capable, certain, powerful, clear, or morally anchored. Think inspired, empowered, proud, confident, determined, indignant, contemptuous.

Low-dominance feelings make people feel overwhelmed, small, uncertain, helpless, confused, or threatened. Think fear, anxiety, shame, sadness, helplessness, panic.

This is why anger and fear are so different even though both can be unpleasant and high-arousal. Fear says, “I may not be able to handle this.” Anger says, “This is wrong, and I want to push back.” Same energy, different sense of control.

VAD<>Action Mapping

Think of two primary actions that a person can take after consuming a content - comment vs share.

Low valence is correlated with overall more engagement (both in terms of comments & shares) - as expected (negativity is known to be more engaging that positivity)

High arousal with low dominance → more comment

High dominance → more share (arousal has less effect here, though high might be less effective in some cases)

Research paper link

Comments come from activated reaction. Shares come from agentic endorsement.

If you want comments, create emotional activation. Use tension, surprise, unresolved questions, disagreement, contradiction, provocation, or a situation that invites people to add their own view. Comment-heavy content often gives people something to respond to.

If you want shares, create agency. Give people a clear takeaway, a useful frame, a strong belief, an inspiring example, a warning worth passing on, or a piece of language that helps them express something they already feel but had not articulated.

Share >> comment if increased reach is what you are aiming for.

Try to evoke feelings listed on the right side in the above two charts (high dominance) if you want your content to be shared more.

We have all heard (and it’s true) that negative feelings correlate with more engagement. Bad news, injustice, threat, failure, hypocrisy, loss, and danger all pull attention because they carry survival value. We are wired to notice what may harm us or our group.

But negative emotion alone is not enough to predict what kind of reaction you will get.

• A negative, high-arousal, low-dominance feeling like fear may drive comments, questions, and anxious discussion.

• But a negative, high-dominance feeling like indignation may drive sharing because the reader feels morally clear: “People need to know this.”

Fear says: “What is happening?” Anger says: “This is wrong.” Sadness says: “This hurts.” Inspired says: “This is possible.” Empowered says: “We can do something.” And outrage says: “Others must see this.” And this distinction is extremely useful when you are writing something and thinking of the angle to go for (and the main emotion to trigger in the reader / content consumer),

The mistake is to think “strong emotion” is one thing. It is not. Anger is not fear. Awe is not inspiration. Sadness is not moral outrage. Calm confidence is not boredom. Each feeling carries a different action tendency.

Comments are most likely when people feel high arousal + low dominance

People comment more (than share) when they feel charged up, but not fully in control.

Something feels confusing, unfair, provocative, unresolved, or emotionally irritating. So they react inside the content’s own space — replying, objecting, correcting, venting, laughing, asking.

The reader feels: “I need to say something.”

That is why anger, anxiety, shock, surprise, frustration, confusion, or outrage often generate comments. The content creates an itch in the mind, and the comment box becomes the place to scratch it.

Now compare that with sharing.

Sharing is basically “broadcasting” (commenting → ‘narrowcasting’).

When you share something, you are putting it in front of your own audience. The content now reflects on you, becoming part of your public identity. Thus the emotional logic of sharing is not merely “I felt something strongly”, but closer to: “This says something I want others to see.” And that is why dominance matters so much.

High-dominance feelings make people feel they have a clear message, stance, or takeaway.

The reader / content-consumer feels: “Others should see this.”

• Inspired → “This is worth spreading.”

• Empowered → “People should see what is possible.”

• Proud → “This reflects who I am or what I believe.”

• Indignant → “People need to know this is wrong.”

• Confident → “This is important, and others should pay attention.”

One way to think about it is that commenting is often about expression, while sharing is often about endorsement. A comment says, “Here is my reaction.” A share says, “This belongs in my world.”

This also explains why high arousal is not always necessary for sharing. In fact, very high arousal can sometimes reduce shareability because it can feel too messy, too reactive, or too emotionally hot (where in people may feel strongly, but not necessarily want to attach their identity to it and hence wouldn’t share).

So for sharing, low-to-moderate arousal with high dominance is the way to go.

Feelings like inspired, hopeful, reassured, proud, confident, thoughtful concern, moral clarity, and calm conviction are highly shareable because they give people both meaning and control.

Hope this blog helped. The next time you are planning a story, ad, post, headline, or campaign, go beyond just asking, “What emotion do we want people to feel?” - also ask the following:

• Is the feeling positive or negative?

• Is it high-energy or low-energy?

• Does it make people feel powerful or powerless?

Because somewhere inside those answers lies the difference between silence, a comment, and a share.

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Story99.com is a Branding & Storytelling Consultancy for B2B, Tech & Deeptech