LECTURE 10 ‘SOCIAL CONTAGION ON SOCIAL MEDIA: HOW BEHAVIORS MAY SPREAD ACROSS ONLINE NETWORKS (zonder artikelen)

Question 1

Variations of the paradigm (lijntjes experiment)

Answer 1

• Presence of a true partner
  o Only less than 5% continued to answer with majority.
• Withdrawal of a true partner
  o When partner was withdrawn after half of the experiment, conformity increased significantly.
• Majority size
  o Smaller groups sizes (actors) associated with lower levels of conformity.
• Written responses.
  o Writing the responses instead of verbalizing them aloud decreased conformity

Question 2

Bandwagon effect

Answer 2

= a psychological phenomenon in which people do something primarily because other people are doing it, regardless of their own beliefs, which they may ignore or override. This tendency of people to align their beliefs and behaviors with those of a group is also called a herd mentality

Question 3

Contagion

Answer 3

Transmission of a disease by direct contact with an infected person or object; a disease or
poison transmitted in this way; the means of transmission; the transmission of an emotional state

Question 4

Social or behavioral contagion

Answer 4

‘Refers to the propensity for a person to copy a certain behavior of others who are either in the vicinity (omgeving), or whom they have been exposed to

Question 5

Social norms are:

Answer 5

• ‘Rules or standards that are understood by members of a group, and that guide and/or constrain
  social behavior without the force of law’.
• An article is based on the premise that, given the centrality of communicative processes in
  propagating information about norms, its inclusion would enhance the explanatory power of
  theories of normative influences’.

Question 6

Collective norm

Answer 6

• Actual prevelance of behavior
• Level: Societal
• Utility: Enable a code of conduct

Question 7

Conformity

Answer 7

• Desire to fit in with a group
• The act of adjusting one’s thoughts, beliefs, or behaviors to match those of a particular group or social norm

Question 8

Perceived norm

Answer 8

• Perceptions about the prevalence of behavior and pressures to conform
• Level: Psychological
• Utility: Avoid cognitive dissonance

Question 9

Injunctive norm

Answer 9

• Perceived pressures to conform to avoid social sanctions
• A norm that specifies what actions are approved of or disapproved of by a particular social group or society
• Level: Social
• Utility: Gain social approval
• “Most people whose opinion I value would approve of my talking with my family about organ donation”

Question 10

Descriptive norm

Answer 10

• Perceived prevalence of behaviour
• An individual’s perception or belief about how common a particular behavior is in a given social context.
• Level: social
• Utility: Provide social information
• vb: iedereen rookt in mijn omgeving dus dat is een common behavior

Question 11

Subjective norm

Answer 11

• Perceptions about what important others expect one to doe
• Level: Social/phsychological
• Utility: maintain interpersonal harmony

Question 12

What are the types of norms?

Answer 12

• collective
• perceived
• injuctive
• descriptive
• subjective

Question 13

Potential moderators to conforming to a norm

Answer 13

• Injunctive norm
• Outcome expectations
• Group identity and group involvement
• Perceived social distance (is it close to me and my group?)
• Ego-involvement (is it important to my identity?)

Question 14

Behavioral Contagion on Social Media Effects of Social Norms, Design Interventions, and Critical Media Literacy on Self-Disclosure Masur, P. K., DiFranzo, D. J., & Bazarova, N. N. (2021).

Answer 14

• Names are the most frequently shared, followed by adress and phone number.
• All of the disclosing has increased by 2017
• Experiment 1 results: The more visual disclosure, the higher the norm perceptions and disclosure intentions
• Showing a privacy announcement didn’t change the users their attitude to posting the picture. they are influenced by the norms of people showing their face.

Question 15

Problems in previous studies on self disclosure

Answer 15

1. Mostly survey studies that analyse relationship between norm perceptions and behaviors (self-report)
2. Few studies investigated effect of collective norm
3. Used questionnaires that were not validated
4. Few experimental investigations and mostly intervention studies
5. No observation or tracking of actual behaviours