3,747 research outputs found

    Examining How Perceptions of Websites Encourage Prosocial Behaviour

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    Organisations are increasingly reliant on information and communications technology (ICT) to encourage prosocial behaviour (i.e., volunteering, philanthropy and activism). However, little is known about how to use ICT to encourage prosocial behaviour. Given this research gap, the objective of this study is to outline and test a research model that assesses the role of specific perceptions of websites in encouraging prosocial behaviour. To do this, we review the literature to derive a theoretical model of relevant perceptions. We then test the extent to which this model can predict participants’ volunteering and philanthropic behaviour subsequent to their usage of a website that encourages prosocial behaviour. The findings are expected to contribute by (i) giving insights into how perceptions of websites encourage prosocial behaviour, (ii) explaining the roles of negative and positive affect in ICT domains, and (iii) developing a “persuasiveness of website scale” to help IS researchers to measure this construct

    Creating compassion: how volunteering websites encourage prosocial behaviour

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    Organisations increasingly use websites to promote prosocial behaviour such as volunteering, philanthropy, and activism. However, these websites often fail to encourage prosocial behaviours effectively. To address the lack of relevant research, we develop, then refine, a design model that identifies the user experience factors that create intention to engage in prosocial behaviour on websites. We test an initial model developed from the literature, by interviewing forty participants, each of whom visited and compared six volunteering websites. Our analysis of the participants’ user experience reveals eighteen elements that interplay to create intention to engage in prosocial behaviour. Our refined design model comprises ten website features (interaction, factual, anecdata, external recognition, organisational expression, value suggestion, explanatory content, visual media, written media and, website design), seven perceptions (ease of use, aesthetics, information quality, trust, negative affect, positive affect, and argument strength), and one motivation (egoism). These findings provide novel insights into how to design Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to encourage prosocial behaviour

    How Social Experience Encourages Donation Intention to Charitable Crowdfunding Projects on Social Media: Empathy and Personal Impulsiveness

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    Embedding charitable crowdfunding into social media is a new practice that encourages prosocial behaviors. The rich social experience in charitable crowdfunding on social media distinguishes this context from other conventional contexts like charity fundraising websites. Specifically, this study incorporates social experience, empathy and personal impulsiveness to investigate donation intention in this new context. By analyzing survey data collected in China, this study finds that empathy mediates the effects of interaction with fundraiser and perceived proximity with donatee on a user’s donation intention. Social influence on social media platform is found to have positive influences on empathy and on donation intention. This study also investigates how empathy’s influence on donation intention varies by personal impulsiveness. It contributes to extant literature by highlighting the mediating role of empathy and the moderating role of personal impulsiveness. It also provides practical insights to encourage pro-social behaviors

    Bullying in a networked era: a literature review

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    This research update presents an aggregation and summary of recent academic literature on youth bullying. The purpose of this document is to “translate” scholarly research for a concerned public audience, which may include but is not limited to parents, caregivers, educators, and practitioners. This translation highlights recent findings and developments in the literature and makes them accessible to the informed but non-expert reader. The document’s two guiding questions are “What is bullying?” (Section I) and “What can be done about bullying?” (Section II). Section I begins with a brief overview of key definitions and related research conversations and then addresses bullying’s prevalence, the types of individuals involved in bullying, the characteristics of individuals involved and the consequences of their involvement, and community-level dynamics related to bullying. Section II covers four areas where action has been taken to address problems associated with bullying – school policy, curricula, school climate, and parents – and ends on a note about approaches that mix or cut across these areas. The purpose is to render lessons learned from research and assessment accessible to those interested in deepening or expanding their knowledge of bullying-related issues

    Make a Name for Yourself: Recognizability, Prosociality, and Identity Expression in Online Pseudonymous Contexts

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    Given the increasing prevalence of social media in people’s social lives, understanding the dynamics of interpersonal interaction online is timely and important, both theoretically and practically. One key element in these dynamics is the way people identify themselves online. Identity can influence how people see themselves and others, as well as how people treat others. One way through which people create or claim an identity online is through the use of a pseudonym: a self-designed identifier that is used in place of one’s actual name. My dissertation investigates how Internet users come to value persistent online identifications, such as pseudonyms, as extensions of self and how this process shapes online behavior. The specific goals of this dissertation are to investigate how (a) pseudonymous settings online influence prosociality relative to anonymous settings, and (b) different features of pseudonyms, such as their persistence and level of expressiveness, can change people’s expectations for their own and others’ identifiability and thereby influence behavior and attitudes. This dissertation also studies how personality factors, social context, and group identity can serve to moderate the effects of pseudonymity on behavior and attitudes. The dissertation pursues these goals across six chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the key concepts and objectives in the dissertation. Chapter 2, which contrasts pseudonymity and anonymity, reviews the existing literature and outlines theoretical considerations that inform subsequent study designs. Chapter 2 explains how pseudonymity may make personal and group identities salient, and how personal and situational factors may interact with pseudonymity to influence behavior. Chapter 3 investigates in two studies how prosocial behavior online may be influenced through the use of personal identifiers. These two studies distinguish the effects of anonymity from pseudonymity (Study 1) between temporary and persistent pseudonymity (Studies 1 and 2) in online behavior. The results of Study 1 and Study 2 suggest that the effects of having a pseudonym, compared to being anonymous, or having a persistent versus temporary pseudonym, influence prosocial behavior primarily by affecting perceptions of recognizability. Chapter 4 presents an experiment (Study 3) that investigated how qualities of persistent pseudonyms can affect users’ psychological states and ultimately their online social behavior. It explored the effect of a pseudonym that contained “unique” personally-relevant information or one that was personally relevant but also is designed to be expressive of oneself, compared to a control condition in which participants had a persistent pseudonym that was designed to individuate them (a pseudonym that distorts personal information in an unrecognizable fashion), on online social experiences and behavior. Although, as expected, participants valued unique and expressive pseudonyms more than information pseudonyms and found expressive pseudonyms as being more personally reflective, inconsistent with expectations, unique and expressive pseudonyms did not make participants feel more recognizable to others than did information pseudonyms. Chapter 4 describes Studies 4 and 5 that further considered prosociality and group dynamics. Study 4 included an additional manipulation of others’ recognizability and a measure of participants’ concerns about leaving a good impression on others, and it also investigated participants’ everyday sadism as a moderator of prosociality. Guided by findings from Study 4, Study 5 manipulated the perceived group membership of participants and included other aspects of altruistic punishment (Fehr & GĂ€chter, 2002) as behavioral measures. These two studies indicated that there may be an optimal amount of personal information to receive about another person online—particularly when one does not feel a strong sense of ingroup cohesion with this other person. When individual identities were emphasized, individuating information about others online appeared to be “too much information,” which discouraged prosocial feelings. By contrast, when group identity was salient, receiving personal information about others did not reduce prosociality relative to not receiving such information. Chapter 6 discusses implications, limitations, and future directions of my research. In particular, Chapter 6 compares the results of the studies to existing literature and explains the studies’ novel contributions, while also acknowledging their shortcomings. Chapter 6 then proposes future studies for testing wider implications of the dissertation research. Ultimately, I expect that my work will contribute to the psychological understanding of online social interaction, particularly in the context of identity, and that its implementation will help both website administrators and users to create social spaces that are safer, more collaborative, and more enjoyable to use

    Teens who intervene: identifying factors related to adolescent cyber-bystander intervention in cyberbullying

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    Introduction: Cyberbullying experiences have been linked to mental health difficulties, highlighting the need to refine anti-cyberbullying interventions, particularly for at-risk groups, and understand what encourages bystanders to intervene. The current study compared adolescents’ prosocial cyber-bystander intentions in an intragroup (‘UK-born’ victim status) and intergroup (‘immigrant’ victim status) cyberbullying context. State empathy and state self-efficacy were examined as potential mediators, accounting for baseline trait levels of these two factors and gender. Methods: British adolescents (N=129; 13.5-15 years old; 59.7% female; predominately White) from two comprehensive schools in the UK took part in a two (gender: female/male) by two (victim status: British/immigrant) between-subjects quasi-experimental study. Participants were randomly assigned to read a gender-matched hypothetical cyberbullying vignette with an adolescent cyber-victim who was either ‘U.K.-born’ or an ‘immigrant’. Self-report questionnaires captured participants’ prosocial bystander intentions, state and trait self-efficacy and empathy, alongside demographic information. Results: Findings showed that victim status did not relate to self-efficacy or prosocial cyber-bystander intentions. Higher empathy was reported by females and, unexpectedly, within the ‘immigrant victim’ condition. An indirect relationship was found between victim status and prosocial cyber-bystander intentions, with state empathy as a statistical mediator. Trait empathy did not moderate the path between victim status and state empathy. Conclusions: The present study supports promoting bystander state empathy in anti-cyberbullying programmes, but the importance of intergroup processes is unclear. To reduce cyberbullying impact, future research should explore cyber-bystander behaviour towards at-risk groups inter-sectionally, controlling for additional intergroup variables which potentially caused a suppressor effect in the results

    Measuring volunteerability and the capacity to volunteer among non-volunteers: implications for social policy

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    As volunteering and its benefits gain global recognition, social policymakers can sustain and increase volunteering through social policy, legislation and other types of involvement. A key performance practice is to measure the rate of volunteering based on the percentage of the population that volunteer or the number of hours donated. The focus of this article, however, is on the capacity to volunteer by non‐volunteers as well as by volunteers. The concept and theory of volunteerability (an individual's ability to overcome related obstacles and volunteer, based on his or her willingness, capability and availability) offers a richer understanding of how people can be assisted to overcome barriers to maximize their volunteer potential and thus increase volunteering. The article details the definitions and benefits of volunteering and covers examples of related social policy, as well as explaining the concept of volunteerability and how it can be measured using existing and new scales. Based on a mixed methods study in Australia, the article offers specific measures to examine the concept of volunteerability and reveals important differences between volunteers and non‐volunteers. The article also details major barriers to volunteering and how social policies can be developed to overcome them

    Three Research Essays on the Effects of Charity Website Design on Online Donations

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    This dissertation, which comprises three essays, examines the effects of charity website characteristics on people\u27s attitudes and online donation behaviors based on the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion (Essay 1), the halo effect (Essay 2), and self-schema, congruity, and visual rhetoric (Essay 3). Essay 1: The Elaborating Role of Personal Involvement with Charity Giving and Helper\u27s High on the Effects of Website Quality: Multiple Roles of Variables Although the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) has been utilized for decades, researchers have not leveraged its full capabilities and richness in understanding the multiple roles postulate and employing the central and peripheral routes to persuasion. The central theme of this study is that cues can assume multiple roles, serving as central or peripheral cues, depending on an elaboration state. Moreover, this study asserts that a variable cannot be determined as a central or peripheral cue without consisting the elaboration state and associated theoretical explanations. This study theorizes and empirically tests the multiples roles postulate in the context of charity website and online donations. Using websites as a persuasion channel, this study investigates the effects of charity website quality, consisting of information content quality and system quality, on attitude toward the charity website, which in turn influences willingness to donate to the charity website. In keeping with the multiple roles postulate, this research investigates two charity-specific motivational constructs, personal involvement with charity giving and helper\u27s high as elaboration states, proposing that people with high personal involvement are more likely to be persuaded by information content, including financial, performance, and donation information. Likewise, individuals who reflect greater helper\u27s high, will rely more on system quality characteristics (including navigability, download delay, visual aesthetics, and security) in evaluating and forming their attitudes toward the charity websites. The results of structural equation modeling supported all hypotheses. This study extends the ELM by supporting the multiple roles postulate that has not received adequate attention in prior research and introducing charity-specific elaboration motivations. Essay 2: Beautiful is Good and Good is Reputable: Multi-Attribute Charity Website Evaluation and Reputation Formation under the Halo Effect The halo effect has been extensively employed to understand how people make judgments of quality about an object. However, there is little research on how people evaluate multi-attribute objects and what types of salient halos exist in their evaluation. In addition, little research has investigated the initial reputation formation of an unknown object. Based on these two research lacuna, the purposes of this study is to identify if there are evidences of various salient halos in evaluating multi-attributes objects and to theorize initial reputation formation. To accomplish these research objectives, this study employs charity websites as a multi-attribute donation channel consisting of three dimensions of information contents (mission, financial, and donation assistance information) and four dimensions of system functionalities/features (i.e., navigability, download speed, visual aesthetics, and security). This study proposes collective halo, aesthetics halo, two-sided quality halo, quality halo, and reputation halo in the context of charity website evaluation. The results of structural equation modeling and other analyses show evidence of the proposed halos. Essay 3: The Effects of Schema Congruity and Visual Consistency on Social Judgment of Charity Websites Effectively designed websites can positively enhance the donors\u27 perceptions so as to facilitate online donations. Drawing on extensive research on self-schema, congruity, and visual rhetoric, this study examines the effects of schema congruity (SC) and visual consistency (VC) on the perceived warmth and competence of charity websites. This study theorizes schema-visual congruity, an interaction between SC and VC. Using a controlled lab experiment, this study finds significant main effects of schema congruity and visual consistency on perceived warmth and competence. Also, there is a positive interaction between SC and VC, supporting the need for schema-visual congruity as a determinant of perceived warmth and competence. Consistent with prior eCommerce and donation research, this study finds that positive perceptions of charity websites (i.e., warmth and competence) increase attitude toward donation to the website, which in turn influences donation intention

    How does risk mediate the ability of adolescents and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live a normal life by using the Internet?

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    The focus of this position paper is Internet use by adolescents and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Drawing on existing literature in the field we will identify problems with and gaps in the current research. Our review is framed by three main questions: What constitutes a ‘normal’ life for adolescents and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities? What constitutes ‘normal’ use of the Internet for adolescents and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities? How does risk mediate the ability of adolescents and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live a normal life by using the Internet? The key focus of this review is the complex relationship between adolescents and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and those providing support; how they negotiate access to and use of the Internet and how perceptions regarding risk and normalcy mediate this negotiation. As a result of this review will argue that identified gaps and problems in the research field need to be addressed by expanding both methodological and conceptual approaches. In particular we will propose the need for more in-depth qualitative research that is inclusive in nature. We will also propose that an adapted positive risk-taking framework might be useful in framing the design, implementation and analysis of future research

    An Evolutionary-Developmental Perspective on Altruistic Thinking, Social Reasoning Skills, and Self-Perceptions in Middle Childhood

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    This study utilized an evolutionary developmental framework to explore individual differences and relations among prosocial behaviours and social reasoning skills related to self-perceptions in middle childhood. There is little research in this area specifically, as an evolutionary developmental framework is seldom applied to this age group within the context of education. Participants (n=70) aged 9-11 years old were recruited from different schools under one school board. Participants completed self-report measures online that measured altruistic thinking, perceived academic competence, school-related perceived stress and pressure, global self-worth (GSW), theory of mind (ToM), and empathy. Results showed a significant difference in empathy between those who scored high versus low in altruistic thinking. Altruism was positively correlated with affective empathy and cognitive ToM (e.g., a type of social reasoning skill that involves cognitive perspective-taking), although cognitive ToM was not related to affective empathy. Perceived academic competence was positively correlated with GSW. High levels of perceived classroom-related stress and pressure were negatively correlated with perceived academic competence and GSW. In contrast, high levels of perceived stress and pressure positively correlated to high levels of affective empathy. Implications for practice include the development of strategies for educators to promote positive relationships and altruistic behaviours among students to aid in student well-being. Implications for research include support for the application of an evolutionary developmental perspective to the social domains of classroom dynamics
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