SOCIAL MEDIA AND PROTESTS ENGAGEMENT: WHAT’S GENDER GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Abstract

Social media allows people to organize themselves and take action against social injustices and policies. Used to spread information, social media has been linked to the dissemination of political protests around the world. Relying on the Theory of Planned Behavior and Herd Behavior, this studied aimed at identifying gender differences in social network protests’ participation. Making use of multivariate data analysis through Partial Least Squares Path Modeling (PLS-SEM), 318 Brazilians responded the study and the results indicate that there are differences between the relationships of the antecedents of the use of the social network between users of different genders. The differences are in the relationship between the attitude and the use of social networks to participate in protests, with a positive effect on men and negative on women. This means that men understand that participating in online protests through social networks can improve awareness of events, giving strength to the movement and helping to ease the tension of protests, while women do not. The results go beyond the studies on which they were based, including the gender multigroup analysis and presenting a new model of technology adoption with new elements, such as the herd behaviour, embracing the imitation, and the uncertainty constructs. There is also a contribution to a greater understanding of the influence of social media on collective activism or movements.