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Pragmatics: Online-First Articles

“It’s nothing serious, take it easy”

Chinese doctors’ emotion-regulating discourses on the online medical consultation websites

ORCID logo | Yangtze University | Tongji University
ORCID logo | Harbin Engineering University
| Harbin Engineering University

Prior studies have focused on the prevalence, causes and impacts of patients’ negative emotions during doctor-patient communication. However, to date, there is a paucity of research focusing on doctors’ emotion-regulating strategies and their effects on online medical consultation (OMC). In this connection, drawing on the concept of extrinsic emotion regulation, this paper analyzes empirically the doctors’ strategies in regulating patients’ emotions and examines the effects based on data from Dingxiang Yisheng, one of the largest online medical consultation platforms in China. It is found that doctors deploy extensive discourse of relational work and diagnosis to regulate patients’ negative emotions. Comments from patients not only reveal the effectiveness of doctors’ strategies in alleviating negative emotions but also showcase that patients attribute the relief of their emotions to doctors’ expertise, attitude, response speed, and communication skills. All these findings contribute to theoretical insights into emotion regulation and have practical implications for online doctor-patient communication.

Keywords: online medical consultation (OMC), emotion regulation, emotion attribution
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Online doctor-patient communication: Issues and the status quo
    • 2.2Patients’ negative emotions: Causes and impacts
  • 3.Theoretical framework
  • 4.Method
    • 4.1Research question
    • 4.2Data collection
    • 4.3Data analysis
  • 5.Results and discussion
    • 5.1Results
      • 5.1.1Downgrading the negative emotions of patients
        • Politeness markers
        • Empathic expressions
        • Medical jargons
        • Attitudinal discourse
      • 5.1.2Upgrading the negative emotions of patients
    • 5.2Patients’ comments: A discussion of patient-centeredness in OMC in China
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 June 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.23041.jia
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