Social Media: Risks & Opportunities – lecture 1 – 21-10-2024
Why is it relevant to study what people love/hate about social media?
There are opportunities that you can use in businesses
The fact that we are spending much time on social media is important
People have access to different types of devices
Key terms
Social media = websites/applications that enable users to create and share content
and/or to participate in social networking
Risk = a situation involving exposure to danger
Opportunity = a chance for something/someone to happen
Social Media: Risks & Opportunities – lecture 2 – 24-10-2024
Defining online aggression
Online aggression = intentional harm delivered by the use of electronic means to a
person or a group of people irrespective of their age, who perceive(s) such acts as
offensive, derogatory, harmful or unwanted (Grigg, 2010)
Defining cyberbullying
Bullying = aggressive, intentional act or behavior that is carried out by a group or an
individual repeatedly and overtime against a victim who cannot easily defend him- or
herself
This is called power imbalance (= depends on context; can be someone who is very
popular or not)
- Social intelligence (= perpetrator knows very well what social consequences
some behavior has)
Who is perpetrator?
Dark personalities = those characterized by socially offensive traits
Dark Triad:
Narcissism = having an extreme involvement in yourself; you want people to see you
- E.g., thinking about how you should present yourself (online)
Machiavellianism = being very manipulative in order to reach your goals
- It’s part of who you are (what drives you) and do everything what is necessary in
order to reach your goal
Psychopathy = arrogant style when they have to deal with others
- Deceitful, incentive, cold (don’t care about others) and they do whatever it takes
Some overlap between these sorts of personalities
Dark Triad Study by Pabian et al.
First to study the association between Dark Triad traits (as a combined Dark Triad
cluster) and cyber-aggression among an adolescent population
Cyber-aggression = online aggression (it’s the same!)
Method: Cross-sectional survey among adolescents aged 14-18
, Results: 1 out of 3 engaged at least once in the past three months in one or more than
one of the eight cyber-aggression activities
Saying things about someone to make the person a laughing stock was the most
used activity
Followed by sending insulting messages
What can we learn from this model?
Only psychopathy was significantly associated with cyber-aggression
- If you score a bit higher of psychopathy, it is more likely that you perform cyber-
aggression on a higher frequency
o People who are more narcistic are more likely to perform cyber-aggression
Facebook intensity was connected to cyber-aggression
- If you use Facebook more often, it is more likely that you perform cyber-
aggression on a higher frequency
It is not about extreme beliefs!
Implications of study
As personality traits are fairly stabilized in this age group, cyber-aggression may be used
as an indicator of psychopathy in adolescent individuals
Prevention?
Social perspective-taking skills have been proven successful in overcoming
egocentrism and antisocial behavior
Include training of these skills in prevention programs
Limitations of study
Short Dark Triad instrument did not allow to investigate sub-constructs of
Machiavellianism, Narcissism and Psychopathy
More recently: Dark Tetrad ---> sadism as fourth trait
- Sadism = take pleasure out of hurting others
Self-reports: Are children ot admit that they enjoy manipulating etc. others in the
school/leisure context?
,To consider because of this study:
How to translate these findings into concrete implications remains difficult, hard to
change personality traits (black box)
Might be more informative to focus on determinants of behavior that can be changed
Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) study by Pabian & Vandebosch (2014)
Focus on proximal determinants of cyberbullying
Proximal determinants: more immediate determinants of behavior
Can influence your behavior, but do it through immediate determinants
Received few attentions in previous research
Previously studied in isolation from other proximal determinants
Importance of studying proximal determinants:
Modifiable by interventions
Model of TPB
Intention is formed out of three concepts:
1. Behavioral beliefs: attitude towards the behavior
2. Normative beliefs: subjective norm; beliefs about different reference groups
3. Control beliefs: perceived behavioral control; beliefs about specific aspects who
make it hard/easy to perform a particular behavior
If you know these, then you can change something
People might think that cyber-bullying is okay, because everybody does it
If you change this, you can change the cyber-bullying
, Use of the TPB
Adding underlying beliefs
Attitudes
- Why are attitudes positive/negative?
- Which are the expected positive/negative outcomes of cyberbullying?
Subjective norm
- Which reference groups ultimately generate a positive/negative influence?
Perceived behavioral control
- What makes cyberbullying easy/difficult to perform?
This gives us very concrete information on what exactly should be targeted in an
intervention that wants to reduce cyberbullying!
Cyberbullying beliefs
Behaviors beliefs (A): belief that forms the attitude
Normative beliefs (SN)
Control beliefs (PBC)
First one is about accepting (injunctive norms), second one is about doing it
(descriptive norms; what you think that others do)
Example behavioral beliefs (A):
Example normative beliefs (SN):
Example control beliefs (PBC):
Method: Two-wave panel study among adolescents aged 11-17 years old
Results: Perpetration CB (at least once in the past 6 months)
Why is it relevant to study what people love/hate about social media?
There are opportunities that you can use in businesses
The fact that we are spending much time on social media is important
People have access to different types of devices
Key terms
Social media = websites/applications that enable users to create and share content
and/or to participate in social networking
Risk = a situation involving exposure to danger
Opportunity = a chance for something/someone to happen
Social Media: Risks & Opportunities – lecture 2 – 24-10-2024
Defining online aggression
Online aggression = intentional harm delivered by the use of electronic means to a
person or a group of people irrespective of their age, who perceive(s) such acts as
offensive, derogatory, harmful or unwanted (Grigg, 2010)
Defining cyberbullying
Bullying = aggressive, intentional act or behavior that is carried out by a group or an
individual repeatedly and overtime against a victim who cannot easily defend him- or
herself
This is called power imbalance (= depends on context; can be someone who is very
popular or not)
- Social intelligence (= perpetrator knows very well what social consequences
some behavior has)
Who is perpetrator?
Dark personalities = those characterized by socially offensive traits
Dark Triad:
Narcissism = having an extreme involvement in yourself; you want people to see you
- E.g., thinking about how you should present yourself (online)
Machiavellianism = being very manipulative in order to reach your goals
- It’s part of who you are (what drives you) and do everything what is necessary in
order to reach your goal
Psychopathy = arrogant style when they have to deal with others
- Deceitful, incentive, cold (don’t care about others) and they do whatever it takes
Some overlap between these sorts of personalities
Dark Triad Study by Pabian et al.
First to study the association between Dark Triad traits (as a combined Dark Triad
cluster) and cyber-aggression among an adolescent population
Cyber-aggression = online aggression (it’s the same!)
Method: Cross-sectional survey among adolescents aged 14-18
, Results: 1 out of 3 engaged at least once in the past three months in one or more than
one of the eight cyber-aggression activities
Saying things about someone to make the person a laughing stock was the most
used activity
Followed by sending insulting messages
What can we learn from this model?
Only psychopathy was significantly associated with cyber-aggression
- If you score a bit higher of psychopathy, it is more likely that you perform cyber-
aggression on a higher frequency
o People who are more narcistic are more likely to perform cyber-aggression
Facebook intensity was connected to cyber-aggression
- If you use Facebook more often, it is more likely that you perform cyber-
aggression on a higher frequency
It is not about extreme beliefs!
Implications of study
As personality traits are fairly stabilized in this age group, cyber-aggression may be used
as an indicator of psychopathy in adolescent individuals
Prevention?
Social perspective-taking skills have been proven successful in overcoming
egocentrism and antisocial behavior
Include training of these skills in prevention programs
Limitations of study
Short Dark Triad instrument did not allow to investigate sub-constructs of
Machiavellianism, Narcissism and Psychopathy
More recently: Dark Tetrad ---> sadism as fourth trait
- Sadism = take pleasure out of hurting others
Self-reports: Are children ot admit that they enjoy manipulating etc. others in the
school/leisure context?
,To consider because of this study:
How to translate these findings into concrete implications remains difficult, hard to
change personality traits (black box)
Might be more informative to focus on determinants of behavior that can be changed
Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) study by Pabian & Vandebosch (2014)
Focus on proximal determinants of cyberbullying
Proximal determinants: more immediate determinants of behavior
Can influence your behavior, but do it through immediate determinants
Received few attentions in previous research
Previously studied in isolation from other proximal determinants
Importance of studying proximal determinants:
Modifiable by interventions
Model of TPB
Intention is formed out of three concepts:
1. Behavioral beliefs: attitude towards the behavior
2. Normative beliefs: subjective norm; beliefs about different reference groups
3. Control beliefs: perceived behavioral control; beliefs about specific aspects who
make it hard/easy to perform a particular behavior
If you know these, then you can change something
People might think that cyber-bullying is okay, because everybody does it
If you change this, you can change the cyber-bullying
, Use of the TPB
Adding underlying beliefs
Attitudes
- Why are attitudes positive/negative?
- Which are the expected positive/negative outcomes of cyberbullying?
Subjective norm
- Which reference groups ultimately generate a positive/negative influence?
Perceived behavioral control
- What makes cyberbullying easy/difficult to perform?
This gives us very concrete information on what exactly should be targeted in an
intervention that wants to reduce cyberbullying!
Cyberbullying beliefs
Behaviors beliefs (A): belief that forms the attitude
Normative beliefs (SN)
Control beliefs (PBC)
First one is about accepting (injunctive norms), second one is about doing it
(descriptive norms; what you think that others do)
Example behavioral beliefs (A):
Example normative beliefs (SN):
Example control beliefs (PBC):
Method: Two-wave panel study among adolescents aged 11-17 years old
Results: Perpetration CB (at least once in the past 6 months)
