Sustainability and Social Responsibility

The Applicability of Synthetic Materials As Vegan Alternative Materials: A Time Series Analysis of Sentiment and Dynamic Networks

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Abstract

This study conducted a sentiment analysis and a structural analysis of networks to find out the changes in the consumer attitude and discourse shown toward animal materials. Fur, down, leather, silk, and wool were selected as the representative animal-derived materials, and the synthetic materials selected were artificial fur, artificial down (wellon), artificial leather, artificial silk (viscose rayon), and polyester (knit). It was found that positive attitudes decreased and negative attitudes increased in the present as compared to the past for most animal materials except fur. Most of the synthetic materials, except for viscose rayon, garnered more positive attitudes in the present than in the past. Consumerdiscourse on down decreased in the number of major sub-topics over time, and discussions within the topic were also inactive. While consumers’ interest in down decreased significantly over time, their interest in wellon increased significantly. Only polyester had a significant positive correlation with positive sentimental change.

Keywords: vegan materials, alternative materials, synthetic materials, sentiment analysis, dynamic networks

How to Cite:

Choi, Y. & Lee, K., (2022) “The Applicability of Synthetic Materials As Vegan Alternative Materials: A Time Series Analysis of Sentiment and Dynamic Networks”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 78(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.13375