Third-Person Perceptions and Online Games: A Comparison of Perceived Antisocial and Prosocial Game Effects

The popularity of online games has inspired controversial discussion on the effects of game-play in both mass media and academia. However, we know little about ordinary people's opinions about the effects of game-play. The current study applies the theory of the third-person effect (TPE) to examine people's perceptions of game effects on self and on others, and detects significant third-person perceptual discrepancies. The results show that the magnitude of third-person perceptions is influenced by the social desirability of the message, the social distance between self and others, and by differential exposure to online games. The data supports the hypotheses that Internet efficacy and interdependent self-construal are significant antecedents of third-person perceptions, and partially supports the interaction effect of self-construal with Internet-efficacy and the interaction effect of self-construal with media social desirability.     

Modeling online user behaviors with competitive interactions

Online user behaviors are increasingly modulated by social media. Extant literature mainly focuses on investigating how network structures affect user behaviors. However, recent empirical results demonstrate that user behaviors and network structures usually coevolve dynamically, and topological patterns turn out to be inadequate for characterizing real-world user behaviors. In this paper, we present a dynamic model to deal with this challenge. This proposed model is mainly governed by two competing principles: homophily and homeostasis. Empirical evaluations of three online real-world datasets suggest that the proposed dynamic model can well predict long-range online user behaviors.     

Adolescents’ comments in social media: Why do adolescents receive negative feedback and who is most at risk?

Receiving negative peer feedback in social media may have negative consequences for adolescents’ psychosocial development and well-being. Therefore, the first aim of this study was to investigate online behavior (i.e., online social exploration, risky online self-presentation) that predicts receiving negative online peer feedback. The second aim was to examine three types of precursors that may predict this online behavior and, indirectly, negative feedback: (a) developmental (i.e., sex, age), (b) dispositional (i.e., sensation seeking, inhibitory control), and (c) social precursors (i.e., peer problems, family conflict). We collected survey data among 785 Dutch adolescents (10–15 years old). Our results showed that adolescents who engaged in online social exploration and risky online self-presentation more often, were more likely to receive negative peer feedback. Online social exploration was more prevalent among the older adolescents and adolescents characterized by higher sensation seeking and more family conflict. In addition, risky online self-presentation was more prevalent among adolescents high in sensation seeking. Consequently, these adolescents’ online behavior, indirectly, made them more at risk of receiving negative peer feedback in social media.     

Virtual Support Communities and Psychological Well‐Being: The Role of Optimistic and Pessimistic Social Comparison Strategies

Do the beneficial or detrimental effects of CMC activity depend on the specific social comparison strategy individuals use? The present study aimed to answer this question by examining social comparison strategies, different measures of online activity within the community, and psychological well‐being of users of online breast cancer support communities. Results showed that the relationship between online activity (i.e., length of visits and frequency of posts) and psychological well‐being (i.e., breast cancer related concerns and depression) was determined by users' pessimistic social comparison strategy; downward identification influenced especially highly active users. Findings suggest that active CMC users should be careful not to become entrapped by negative social comparison processes.     

Using social media to enrich information systems field trip experiences: Students’ satisfaction and continuance intentions

A well-designed field trip can promote active learning and reinforce classroom materials. Few studies have examined the potential for social media to enhance IS field trip experiences by promoting active and collaborative learning. One major barrier to the exploitation of this potential is the lack of the adoption of social media by students as a learning tool to enhance field trip experiences. Therefore, the first task is to understand how to increase the satisfaction of students in their use of social media to enhance IS field trips. This research sets out to understand the factors that could help increase students’ satisfaction with the use of social media to enhance IS field trips, and thereby their intentions to continue to use social media in future field trips. The results show that to increase user satisfaction, course instructors should ensure that students perceive the social media sites used for enhancing field trip study to be trustworthy, effortless, useful and accepted by their peers. Future research could determine how we can incorporate the use of social media to enhance the field trip learning experience.     

Testing alternative models of individuals’ social media involvement and satisfaction

This study extends the Technology Acceptance Model 3 (TAM 3) within the context of the rapidly evolving area of social media. Since social media requires the user’s active participation and processing of information as well as the creation of user-generated content, this timely study introduces the two relevant constructs of social media involvement and social media satisfaction that are associated with TAM 3. This study then develops three alternative conceptual models and empirically validates each of them using datasets obtained from the United States and Saudi Arabia. The LISREL analysis results show that the Dual Mediation Impact model is the best-fit model for both datasets. Further, the results show that a user’s social media involvement and social media satisfaction are dual mediators of the TAM 3 factors on social media usage intention. While the two country data show some differences in the strength of the relationships in the Dual Mediation Impact model, the identified model provides a common framework for global use. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Why would online gamers share their innovation-conducive knowledge in the online game user community? Integrating individual motivations and social capital perspectives

The user community has been an important external source of a firm’s product or service innovation. Users’ innovation-conducive knowledge sharing enables the community to work as a vital source of innovation. But, traditional economic theories of innovation seem to provide few explanations about why such knowledge sharing takes place for free in the user community. Therefore, this study investigates what drives community users to freely share their innovation-conducive knowledge, using the theory of planned behavior. Based on an empirical analysis of the data from 1244 members of a South Korean online game user community, it reveals that intrinsic motivation, shared goals, and social trust are salient factors in promoting users’ innovation-conducive knowledge sharing. Extrinsic motivation and social tie, however, were found to affect such sharing adversely, contingent upon whether a user is an innovator or a non-innovator. The study illustrates how social capital, in addition to individual motivations, forms and influences users’ innovation-conducive knowledge sharing in the online gaming context.     

Trusting expert- versus user-generated ratings online: The role of information volume,valence, and consumer characteristics

The warranting principle, signaling theory, and theories of informational social influence suggest conditions when either user-generated information, or information originating from traditional experts, might be privileged online. A random sample of 1207 U.S.-based adults with Internet access completed an experiment that manipulated the source, volume, and valence of online movie ratings in order to test predictions derived from these perspectives. Results indicated that ratings volume is positively associated with trust of, reliance on, and confidence in user-generated content, as well as the congruence between one’s own and others’ opinions; that ratings source and volume interact to impact credibility perceptions, reliance on user-generated information, and opinion congruence, such that people tend to favor experts when there is low information volume, but favor user-generated information under conditions of high information volume; and that people’s opinions and behavioral intentions converge with the online ratings information to which they are exposed. In addition, these effects apply more strongly to people more conversant with user-generated content. Results indicate important theoretical extensions by demonstrating that social information online may be filtered through signals indicating its veracity, which may not apply equally to all social media users.     

The effects of a lack of social recognition on online communication behavior

Online services and applications extend the influencing opportunities of traditional word-of mouth (WOM). Unlike traditional word-of-mouth, the online environment allows for special features such as anonymity in user-generated content. Furthermore, the personality of online users affects their motivation when creating this content. The aim of this paper is to link specific online activities, i.e., the posting of product ratings and participation in discussions in online forums, with certain personality traits within an empirical study. The findings, based on an online survey with more than 16,900 completed questionnaires, indicate that opinion leaders in the online environment cannot be compared with traditional opinion leaders in terms of their articulation and personality structure. In regard to online activities with a high influencing potential, the results of moderated regression analyses show that persons with an introverted personality are more active as online opinion leaders due to the lack of social recognition they experience. The results have implications for how marketers should present incentive structures to address and integrate potential online opinion leaders, and how scholars should understand the role of opinion leaders in the online environment.