Facebook Behavior Research Articles

Young people’s identity & Facebook behaviour: The role of gender and ethnicity

AbstractThe aim was to investigate the effects of gender and ethnicity on Facebook visit and identity among young people (14–25 years old) living in Mauritius. According to the results obtained, ma...

Social impact theory: An examination of how immediacy operates as an influence upon social media interaction in Facebook fan pages

This paper proposes that Social Influence Theory is an appropriate approach for understanding social media interaction. Increasingly organisations are looking for ways to develop an effective presence in social media to increase awareness, customer satisfaction, sales and consumer engagement with the brand. The influence of interpersonal interaction upon attitude, beliefs and behaviour, has been studied within social psychology. Different forms of immediacy: physical, temporal and social are theorised as exerting distinct influences upon individual behaviours. This paper reviews the concept of social influence and introduces social impact theory (SIT) a conceptual framework to guide research enquiry and inform practice within the social media marketing. It examines in detail the concept of immediacy and indicates how an understanding of immediacy might explain Facebook behaviours

Teacher E-Professionalism: An Examination of Western Canadian Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions, Attitudes, and Facebook Behaviours.

This study addresses the pressing need for attending to teacher e-professionalism, that is, the appropriate application of information and communication strategies when using digital media. The authors examine data patterns related to 113 pre-service teachers’ perceptions of e-professionalism, attitudes towards existing technology-related professional guidelines, and current behaviours on Facebook. The results from the online questionnaire suggest that these Western Canadian pre-service teachers are uncertain about what online behaviours should be restricted and whether maintaining e-professionalism was possible. Integrated findings are discussed in light of communication privacy management theory. The paper concludes by advancing implications for informing e-professional education for teachers. Cette etude adresse le besoin pressant pour assister e-professionnalisme d'enseignant, qui est, l'application appropriee de strategies d'information et de communication lors de l'utilisation des medias numeriques. Les auteurs examinent les configurations de donnees de 113 enseignants en formation liees a leurs perceptions d’e-professionnalisme, attitudes a l'egard des directrices professionnelles environ la technologie, et comportements actuels sur Facebook. Les resultats du questionnaire suggerent que ces enseignants en formation de ouest canadiens sont incertains quant a ce que les comportements bases sur le Web devraient etre limites et si maintenir e-professionnalisme etait meme possible. Les conclusions sont discutees utilisant une theorie de la gestion de la confidentialite des communications. L’article conclut en avancant des implications pour informer l'education d' e-professionnel pour les enseignants.

Teacher E-professionalism: An Examination of Western Canadian Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions, Attitudes, and Facebook Behaviours

This study addresses the pressing need for attending to teacher e-professionalism, that is, the appropriate application of information and communication strategies when using digital media. The authors examine data patterns related to 113 pre-service teachers’ perceptions of e-professionalism, attitudes towards existing technology-related professional guidelines, and current behaviours on Facebook. The results from the online questionnaire suggest that these Western Canadian pre-service teachers are uncertain about what online behaviours should be restricted and whether maintaining e-professionalism was possible. Integrated findings are discussed in light of communication privacy management theory. The paper concludes by advancing implications for informing e-professional education for teachers.

The Relation of Gender, Behavior, and Intimacy Development on Level of Facebook Addiction in Emerging Adults

Social networking sites are changing the way in which young people develop and maintain friendships and relationships. This study investigated the relationship between level of Facebook addiction, Facebook behaviors, gender, and intimacy development in emerging adults. Participants were 273 university students aged 18 to 25. They completed an online questionnaire that measured their level of Facebook addiction, what they do on Facebook, and their ability to form intimate relationships. A gender difference was found with long distance, passive, active photo, and organizing behaviors relating to high levels of Facebook addiction in females, whereas gaming was related to high levels of Facebook addiction in males. Intimacy development was related to high Facebook use and long distance, active photo, and organizing behaviors, but not to the level of Facebook addiction. Implications regarding the identification of at-risk for addiction emerging adults are discussed.

Effects of Facebook Maintenance Behaviors on Partners’ Experience of Love

This study collected data from 75 heterosexual couples. Partners self-reported their own Facebook behaviors as well as their perceptions of their partner’s Facebook behaviors. Partners also completed the Partner Relationship Quality Components inventory. Analyses used a pairwise data set according to the Actor Partner Interdependence Model. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that two factors explained 59 % of the variance regarding Facebook behaviors: Partner Facebook Maintenance (PFM) and Actor Facebook Maintenance (AFM). Two structural equation models were created, one proposing that PFM and AFM would predict Actor Love and Partner Love when controlling for length of relationship, relationship status, and gender, the other proposing that Actor Love and Partner Love would predict PFM and AFM. Overall analysis indicates good model fit for both models. These results suggest that partners who perceive higher levels of love in their relationship actually participate in less Facebook Maintenance behaviors, and couples who engage in more Facebook Maintenance behaviors experience less love in the relationship. Implications for couples and therapists are discussed.

Don't Judge a (Face)Book by its Cover: Exploring judgement accuracy of others' personality on Facebook

With interaction across social networking sites (SNSs) becoming more prominent, the ability to accurately judge another's personality through these digital platforms is an important area of investigation. A number of studies demonstrate that SNSs can be an effective means of communicating information on personality (Evans, Gosling & Carroll, 2008). Much less research has examined the online cues that people use when forming their impressions of another's personality. The current research adopted a mixed methods approach to examine 1) accuracy of first impressions formed on the basis of viewing a person's Facebook behaviour and 2) how judgements are formed. Findings suggested that the traits of openness and conscientiousness can be judged most accurately through observing Facebook behaviour. To explore the cues used in forming personality judgements, thematic analysis was undertaken. This revealed six information ‘cues’ including; (1) vocabulary of target, (2) photographs, (3) written online interactions, (4) relationships with others, (5) health status and, (6) occupational status. Findings are discussed in terms of Funder's Realistic Accuracy Model (1995, 1999) along with limitations and suggestions for future research.

Associations between compulsive internet use and the autism spectrum

The increasingly complex relationship between individuals and online environments has prompted research exploring the potential for compulsive Internet use (CIU) in varying populations. Identification of the determinants of CIU, such as offline social difficulties associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), could clarify whether individuals compensate for offline difficulties through online interactions. In Study 1, 597 undergraduates took an online survey measuring CIU, social symptoms of ASD, restricted interests and repetitive behaviors (RIRB), self-esteem, and Facebook behaviors. A relationship between CIU and autistic traits was attributable to non-social characteristics (RIRB) and a relationship was identified between RIRB and information-seeking behaviors. These results complicate the social compensation hypothesis by suggesting that non-social personality characteristics contribute more strongly to CIU than individuals’ attempts to compensate for offline social challenges. Study 2 matched a sample of students with ASD (n=33) to neurotypical students (n=33) and uncovered no significant differences in CIU scores between the matched samples. These results suggest that findings observed by measuring autistic traits in neurotypical samples may not replicate with autistic samples.

Facebook behaviors associated with diurnal cortisol in adolescents: Is befriending stressful?

Facebook© is changing the way people interact and socialize. Despite great interest in psychology and sociology, little is known about Facebook behaviors in relation to physiological markers of stress. Given that the brain undergoes important development during adolescence and that glucocorticoids—a major class of stress hormones—are known to modulate its development, it is important to study psychosocial factors that may influence secretion of stress hormones during adolescence. The goal of the present study was to explore the associations between Facebook behaviors (use frequency, network size, self-presentation and peer-interaction) and basal levels of cortisol among adolescent boys and girls. Eighty-eight adolescents (41 boys, 47 girls) aged between 12 and 17 (14.5±1.8) were recruited. Participants provided four cortisol samples per day for two non-consecutive weekdays. Facebook behaviors were assessed in accordance with the existing literature. Well-validated measures of perceived stress, perceived social support, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms were also included. A hierarchical regression showed that after controlling for sex, age, time of awakening, perceived stress, and perceived social support, cortisol systemic output (area under the curve with respect to ground) was positively associated with the number of Facebook friends and negatively associated with Facebook peer-interaction. No associations were found among depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and cortisol. These results provide preliminary evidence that Facebook behaviors are associated with diurnal cortisol concentrations in adolescents.

Examining the relationship between social media characteristics and psychological dispositions

Purpose – This paper aims to adopt a novel approach to the study of individuals’ psychological dispositions that predict Facebook usage/non-usage. Given the historically disappointing results associated with studies that treat personality traits/dispositions as enduring and invariant, contemporary thought accepts that it is the interaction between dispositions and situations that influence behaviour. In this study, the situation (in this case, Facebook) is positioned as the antecedent stimulus for the activation of context-relevant psychological dispositions that, subsequently, facilitate behavioural prediction (i.e. Facebook usage/non-usage). Moreover, Facebook (the stimulus) is examined through its perceived psychological, rather than normative, features to identify context-relevant dispositions. Design/methodology/approach – This two-study project adopts a research framework developed through the integration of communication theories and theoretical frameworks and psychological processing theories. Study 1 adopted a qualitative approach to determine the psychological features of Facebook, as perceived from the individual’s standpoint. Study 2 involved a national online survey, developed from the findings from Study 1, to explore context-relevant psychological dispositions in their prediction of Facebook behaviour. Findings – The findings of Study 1 lead to the identification of the perceived psychological features of Facebook which are categorised under the umbrella terms of interaction, self-image control, usage volition and risk. Using these features (identified in Study 1) to guide in the selection of context-relevant dispositions, rather than arbitrarily selecting dispositions, the hypotheses for Study 2 are developed. As a result, Study 2 involves the discriminant analysis of data gathered from 579 user/non-users of Facebook to determine if context-relevant psychological dispositions accurately predict behaviour of both users and non-users of Facebook. Originality/value – The findings provide a psychological roadmap for Facebook advertisers, which can be used to develop and test media-specific advertising strategy. Furthermore, a significant contribution of this study resides within the research approach itself which can be used to guide not only media research but also other marketing and business research that is characterized by context specificity.

How Do You “Like” My Style? Examining How Communication Style Influences Facebook Behaviors

Given the increasing popularity of social-networking sites, it is extremely important for brand managers involved with Internet-based communication platforms to evaluate whether their communication strategies are positively influencing user attitudes and behaviors toward their brands. This article aims to address this need by investigating how sports fans respond to various marketing communication styles via Facebook posts. Using a case-manipulation design, this study empirically examines the relation among communication styles and individual willingness to engage in 4 common Facebook behaviors (i.e., “comment,” “like,” “share,” and “RSVP”). The results indicate that a personal communication style enhanced individual willingness to “comment” on Facebook posts, while the colorful style enhanced individual willingness to “like” and “RSVP” to Facebook events.

Fooling Around on Facebook: The Perceptions of Infidelity Behavior on Social Networking Sites

This mixed-methods study used content analysis and logistic regression to explore how people interpret Facebook infidelity behaviors, its impact on offline relationships, and how Facebook infidelity compares to online and offline infidelity. Six hundred twenty-eight respondents participated in a story completion task where they finished a narrative concerning questionable behavior on Facebook. Results found 51% of the participants interpreted the Facebook behavior as infidelity, with only 2.9% indicating the behavior was not infidelity. Other findings show that Facebook behavior negatively impacts offline relationships and accessing a partner's Facebook account is a privacy violation. Clinical implications are discussed.

Would you post that picture and let your dad see it? Culture, honor, and Facebook

AbstractHonor means “high respect; esteem,” but it has different associations for different cultures. In honor cultures (Turkey), esteem depends on one's own perception of self‐worth and on other people's opinions. In those cultures, honor is easily lost and difficult to regain. In dignity cultures (northern America), esteem mainly depends on the individual and cannot be taken away by others. One way to lose honor in Turkey is through behaviors that may be seen as “potentially improper.” Thus, we expected that posting pictures of such behaviors on Facebook (e.g., at a party; with one's boyfriend/girlfriend) and letting others see them would be less likely in Turkey than in the northern United States. Moreover, we investigated whether honor endorsement was the reason for this difference. We examined participants' posting intentions and actual Facebook behaviors. As expected, Turkish participants were less willing to post and let others (especially their relatives) see their potentially improper pictures compared with northern Americans. Moreover, honor endorsement negatively predicted the willingness to post such pictures only in Turkey, especially for women. This suggests that in honor cultures, the concern for losing honor could be the underlying reason for avoiding social media postings that could be potentially perceived as improper. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A study of Facebook behavior: What does it tell about your Neuroticism and Extraversion?

Social Network Sites offer users the opportunity to portray themselves with much freedom. People get an impression about a user based on this user’s online profile, posted content and interactions with friends. In this paper, we examine how Neuroticism and Extraversion traits are expressed through such behaviors of a user on Facebook. While previous research relied on self-reported Facebook usage from small samples of college students, we developed a Facebook application to directly retrieve data from 1327 users. This enables us to study fine-grained signals embedded in users’ behaviors, such as writing styles or number of “likes”, and correlate them with users’ personality. We present the features found to be significant and show that these features can be used to infer a user’s Neuroticism and Extraversion.

Romantic relationship stages and social networking sites: uncertainty reduction strategies and perceived relational norms on facebook.

Due to their pervasiveness and unique affordances, social media play a distinct role in the development of modern romantic relationships. This study examines how a social networking site is used for information seeking about a potential or current romantic partner. In a survey, Facebook users (N=517) were presented with Facebook behaviors categorized as passive (e.g., reading a partner's profile), active (e.g., "friending" a common third party), or interactive (e.g., commenting on the partner's wall) uncertainty reduction strategies. Participants reported how normative they perceived these behaviors to be during four possible stages of relationship development (before meeting face-to-face, after meeting face-to-face, casual dating, and exclusive dating). Results indicated that as relationships progress, perceived norms for these behaviors change. Sex differences were also observed, as women perceived passive and interactive strategies as more normative than men during certain relationship stages.

How safe do teenagers behave on Facebook? An observational study.

The substantial use of social network sites by teenagers has raised concerns about privacy and security. Previous research about behavior on social network sites was mostly based on surveys and interviews. Observational research overcomes problems inherent to this research method, for example social desirability. However, existing observational research mostly focuses on public profiles of young adults. Therefore, the current observation-study includes 1050 public and non-public Facebook-profiles of teenagers (13–18) to investigate (1) what kind of information teenagers post on their profile, (2) to what extent they protect this information using privacy-settings and (3) how much risky information they have on their profile. It was found that young people mostly post pictures, interests and some basic personal information on their profile. Some of them manage their privacy-settings as such that this information is reserved for friends' eyes only, but a lot of information is accessible on the friends-of-friends' pages. Although general risk scores are rather low, more detailed analyses show that teenagers nevertheless post a significant amount of risky information. Moreover, older teenagers and girls post more (risky) information while there are no differences in applying privacy settings. We found no differences in the Facebook behavior of teenagers enrolled in different education forms. Implications of these results are discussed.

Consumer – brand engagement on Facebook: liking and commenting behaviors

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to study factors affecting consumers’ liking and commenting behavior on Facebook brand pages, and to analyze the mediating role of mode of interaction on relationships between personality traits and liking/commenting behavior.Design/methodology/approach– Data were collected using an online national survey from 269 respondents, ages between 18 and 32. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.Findings– Results support nine of ten hypotheses with significant relationships between analyzed constructs. It was found that two different modes of interaction acted as mediators between three personality traits and liking/commenting behavior on Facebook.Research limitations/implications– This study only included liking and commenting behavior on Facebook. Future studies could extend the conceptual model by including sharing behavior and other personality traits that were not included in this conceptual model.Practical implications– The findings have several implications for brand managers with respect to their social media strategies and give them guidance in achieving better customer engagement on Facebook. This research is an important step in understanding the factors affecting consumers’ Facebook behavior and useful for practitioners intending to use Facebook as part of their marketing strategy.Originality/value– The study provides a comprehensive framework to understand consumer engagement on Facebook by including specific types of Facebook behavior, three personality traits and two modes of interaction that consumers have in social media.

The relative contributions of implicit and explicit self-esteem to narcissistic use of Facebook

This study aimed to explore the relationship between narcissism and Facebook use. Based on a conceptualization of narcissism as a discrepancy between implicit and explicit self-esteem, we investigated the relative contributions of each element of self-esteem to different Facebook behaviors presumed to represent narcissism. We measured the explicit and implicit self-esteem of 81 participants using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Self-Esteem Implicit Association Test (IAT), respectively. Most participants then provided access to their Facebook accounts by friending a fictitious person. We coded a sample of these participants’ online behaviors, and then analyzed how they related to the measures of self-esteem. Results suggest that implicit rather than explicit self-esteem drives Facebook behaviors associated with narcissism, with implicit self-esteem negatively correlated with number of Facebook friends. These results inform our understanding of the relationship between personality and online behavior.

Perceived realism and Twitter use are associated with increased acceptance of cosmetic surgery among those watching reality television cosmetic surgery programs.

Reality television programming is a popular type of television programming, and features shows about cosmetic surgery. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter are increasingly popular methods of sharing information. The authors surveyed college students to determine among those watching reality television cosmetic surgery programs whether perceived realism or social media use was associated with attitudes toward cosmetic surgery. Participants (n=126) were surveyed about their reality television cosmetic surgery program viewing habits, their perception of the realism of reality television programming, and social media topics of Twitter and Facebook. Outcome variables were the Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery Scales of social, intrapersonal, and consider. Perceived realism was significantly associated with increased scores on the Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery Scale subscales of social (p=0.004), intrapersonal (p=0.03), and consider (p=0.03). Following a character from a reality television program on Twitter was significantly associated with increased social scores (p=0.04). There was no significant association of Facebook behavior with attitudes toward cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic plastic surgeons may benefit by advertising their services on cosmetic surgery reality television programs. These reality television programs portray cosmetic surgery in a positive manner, and viewers with increased perceived realism will be a potential receptive audience toward such advertising. Also, advertising cosmetic surgery services on Twitter feeds that discuss cosmetic surgery reality television programs would be potentially beneficial.

Face to face(book)

It is undoubtedly true that social media such as Facebook and Twitter are influencing the ways in which politicians engage the public, no longer hostage to the gatekeeping proclivities of traditional media, but now able to broadcast their messages to anyone who wants to hear them. On the public’s side, we can now follow politicians who are on Twitter or have a Facebook fan page, comment on their tweets and posts, and send them messages directly. So far, so democratic. But how many of us actually do more than just read posts and tweets and how many politicians do more than just inform us about their activities? Crucially, do politicians use social media in ways that enhance opportunities for dialogue between them and us? To explore these questions further in relation to politicians’ Facebook behaviours, we interviewed New Zealand Members of Parliament about their motivations for using social media and their attitudes on such media’s effectiveness as a political communication tool in the context of a general election campaign. Our findings suggest that despite their talk of citizen engagement, most politicians use social media as means of distributing information (one-way flow) and to make themselves both visible and ‘hip’ to the public. While cautiously optimistic about the role of social media in the lives of citizens, Members of Parliament also suggest that social media must be complementary to, and thus incorporated in, a broad-based communications strategy, rather than be seen as a replacement for traditional campaign activities.