Public anxiety visibility as an ethical issue in the era of technological disruption: A CSQCA study based on Baidu information index

Abstract

In the era of technological disruption, digital platforms increasingly shape how public concerns are made visible, circulated, and commercialized. This study examines public anxiety visibility as an ethical issue in human-centered technological innovation. Using Baidu Information Index data from 2021 to 2025, it constructs 30 topic-year cases from six anxiety-related categories in China and applies within-category normalization and exploratory csQCA. The analysis examines how technological disruption, structural social pressure, commercial relevance, event trigger, and personal consequence combine to produce Relative High Anxiety Visibility. The findings show that technological disruption acts as a foundational digital context, while high visibility emerges through configurations involving commercial relevance, personal consequence, and event-based amplification. Two patterns are identified: sustained commercialization in appearance-related anxiety from 2023 to 2025 and event-triggered amplification across multiple categories in 2023. The study suggests that digital systems do not merely record public concerns, but may also make anxiety-related issues more visible, comparable, and commercially actionable. It contributes to human-centered digital governance by emphasizing information transparency, proportionate presentation, and safeguards against the commercialization of emotional vulnerability.