Introduction to the Special Section on Computational Modeling and Understanding of Emotions in Conflictual Social Interactions

In today’s media and social media, the expression of social, cultural, and political opinions often features a strong affective component, especially when it occurs in highly polarized contexts (discussions on political elections, migrants, civil rights, etc.). Interactions of this type can easily degenerate from fruitful discussions to conflicts, characterized by negative manifestations of opinions such as hate speech. Hate speech, recognized as an extreme, yet typical, expression of opinion, is increasingly intertwined with the spread of defamatory, false stories [6, 9, 17]. At the same time, interpersonal conflict has emerged as a major cause of failure and discrimination in different social contexts, ranging from institutionalized organizations such as workplaces and schools to personal relationships [20]. Detecting and monitoring conflicts is relevant because conflicts may exacerbate the inequalities latent in our societies, thus contributing to exclusion of specific groups of people, such as young