Why do consumers with social phobia prefer anthropomorphic customer service chatbots? Evolutionary explanations of the moderating roles of social phobia

Drawing from evolutionary psychology of anthropomorphism and social phobia, two between-subjects experiments examined the effects of different types of customer service chatbots. Experiment 1 supports the interaction effects between chatbots’ anthropomorphism and consumers’ social phobia on continuance use intention and willingness to recommend the chatbot. Consumers with high social phobia prefer anthropomorphic chatbots to less anthropomorphic chatbots. Experiment 2 confirms the moderating role of social phobia in determining the effects of consumer-chatbot personality matching (similarity attraction) vs. mismatching (complementarity attraction) on the outcome variables only for competent chatbots. For the consumer-chatbot personality mismatching condition, developing competent chatbots for less conscientious consumers with high social phobia will help alleviate socially isolated consumers’ social pain, while developing too smart chatbots for less conscientious consumers with low social phobia can have detrimental effects. Evolutionary psychological mechanisms and managerial implications for chatbot developers and creative directors are explained.     

Artificial emotions for charity collection: A serial mediation through perceived anthropomorphism and social presence

Despite the broad application of chatbot agents in online interactions, an ongoing debate persists regarding their persuasive role and human-like emotional disclosure. Our study adds to this debate by exploring the effect of chatbot agents’ emotional disclosure on people’s willingness to donate to a charitable cause, and by examining individual and serial mediation between the main effects of perceived anthropomorphism and social presence. To this end, two types of artificial intelligence chatbot agents—one disclosing factual information and another disclosing human-like emotion—were developed and trained using Dialogflow, a natural language processing engine. A total of 619 US residents were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk, an online crowdsourcing platform. Of these, 593 participants completed the required conversation with either version of the chatbot agent (factual vs. emotional), as well as the survey questionnaire, and therefore, were included in the final analysis. The participants exhibited a higher willingness to donate when they interacted with a chatbot disclosing human-like emotions than when they were only exposed to factual information. Moreover, this study found both individual and serial mediating roles of perceived anthropomorphism and social presence. Concerning the implications, theoretically, this study adds to the understanding of applying the notion of human interaction to that involving humans and chatbots. Practically, our findings can be of great help in increasing willingness to donate thereby enhancing fund-raising activities.     

How does time spent on WeChat bolster subjective well-being through social integration and social capital?

Although WeChat has recently spawned significant resolutions in technology-mediated social contact and interpersonal communication, the research regarding the social and psychological impacts of the newly emerging technology is relatively few. The primary purpose of the current empirical research is to unearth whether and how WeChat interaction could enhance overseas students’ sense of subjective well-being by concentrating on social integration, bridging relationships, and bonding relationships. Using web-based data of 228 Chinese subjects, the obtained results reveal that the time spent on WeChat significantly and directly impacts users’ subjective well-being. Additionally, the findings demonstrate that social integration, bridging relationships, bonding relationships are all significant predictors to subjective well-being. Furthermore, the perceptions of social integration and social capital could play the crucial mediating roles in the connection between WeChat use and the dependent variable of subjective well-being. Therefore, these outcomes may shed light on a more nuanced comprehending of the influence of the new social media interaction on sojourner’s social adaption and overall life quality in the digital age.     

Social media,social integration and subjective well-being among new urban migrants in China

The current generation of migrants in Chinese cities, named “new urban migrants,” is closely related with social changes in today’s China. As these urban migrants are increasingly dependent on new media, particularly social media for news, entertainment, and social interaction, it is important to know how social media use contributes to their social integration and subjective well-being. Based on an online survey, this study identified positive relationship between new urban migrants’ social media use and their subjective well-being, as well as the possible indirect relationship through social integration. The overall positive socio-psychological effects of social media use within Chinese urban migrants were found. Specifically, this study revealed that social media use can contribute to their social integration, including their building of social identity and social network as well as real-world social participation. New urban migrants’ social integration, particularly their level of social identity, is significantly associated with their subjective well-being.     

Segmenting consumers based on social media advertising perceptions: How does purchase intention differ across segments?

Digitalization, personalization and globalization shape how companies contact and communicate with their consumers who have different needs and wants. In these highly competitive heterogeneous markets, it becomes crucial to reach consumers in an easy, low-cost and more targeted manner. Social media advertising is one of the effective ways of attracting potential customers, retaining attention of current customers and influencing them through persuasive content. Despite its plentiful and obvious advantages, the variation among consumers’ responses to social media advertising remains as a major challenge. Hence, this study aims to identify different consumer segments based on the social media advertising features, discover differences in their individual traits, and examine variation among those segments in terms of the factors that predict their purchase intentions. By utilizing cluster analysis, consumers are segmented according to their perceptions regarding social media advertising features: perceived relevance, performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, informativeness, and interactiveness. It is revealed that consumers are grouped under three segments, namely: “susceptible”, “dispassionate”, and “impervious”. It is found that there are statistically significant differences among these segments in terms of being easily persuaded, impulse buying tendency, self-confidence, and social network proneness in which consumers in “susceptible” segment are more easily persuaded, have high level of self-confidence, have more impulse buying tendency, and are more prone to social networks when compared to other groups. It is also discovered that there are differences among these segments in terms of the factors that determine their purchase intentions for the products presented in social media advertising. The purchase intention of consumers in “susceptible” segment for products exhibited in social media advertising, is determined by perceived relevance, ease of being persuaded, self-confidence and social network proneness. On the other hand, the purchase intention of consumers in the “dispassionate” segment is shaped by informativeness, ease of being persuaded, and social network proneness. Finally, the purchase intention of consumers in “impervious” segment is influenced by hedonic motivation, perceived relevance, impulse buying tendency, and ease of being persuaded. Nevertheless, when the whole sample is considered, it is observed that consumers’ purchase intentions for the products and services presented in social media advertising are influenced by the following factors: perceived relevance, performance expectancy, informativeness, impulse buying tendency, ease of being persuaded, and social network proneness. Understanding differences across segments can help companies design, manage and convey their social media advertising campaigns to their target audience in a convincing, timely, effective, and efficient way, which in turn, let them gain competitive advantage in highly volatile and dynamic markets.     

A meta-analytic review of the relationship between social media use and employee outcomes

Employees’ social media use and its relationships with work-related outcomes have received significant research attention in recent years. Extant research, however, has provided neither consistent findings regarding the extent and direction of such relationships nor consensus on potential moderators involved. To provide robust conclusions about the association between social media use and employee outcomes which could inform research and practice, a systematic culmination of findings from 29 empirical works published in peer-reviewed journals from 2009 to 2018 was conducted. The meta-analytic review assessed the relationships between employees’ social media use and employee outcomes (job performance, job satisfaction, work engagement, emotional exhaustion, and work-life conflict) and their moderators (types of social media, purposes of use, and background variables). The results of the random-effects model suggest that social media use, in general, had significant, small, positive relationships with job performance, job satisfaction, work engagement, and work-life conflict. Its relationship with emotional exhaustion, however, was significant but negligible. The sub-group and meta-regression analyses further identified the moderators among the positive associations found: purpose of social media use moderated the relationships of social media use with job performance and job satisfaction while job position moderated the association between social media use and job satisfaction.     

Social media jealousy and intimate partner violence in young adults’ romantic relationships: A longitudinal study

Social media have profoundly transformed young adults’ social interactions, especially within their romantic relationships. For instance, jealousy induced by the partner's activity on social media can cause conflicts that can escalate into controlling and aggressive behaviors. Previous cross-sectional studies show significant links between social media jealousy and intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. However, the directionality of these associations has not yet been examined using longitudinal designs. This study investigated the associations between social media jealousy and IPV perpetration in young adults’ romantic relationships over a year. Two samples, one composed of 111 couples (n = 222) and one composed of 286 individuals involved in a romantic relationship, completed online questionnaires at two time points over one year. Results of cross-lagged panel analyses were replicated across samples and suggested that the intra-individual association between social media jealousy and IPV perpetration is bidirectional and positive over time. Results also indicated a negative association between a person’s IPV perpetration at Time 1 and their partner’s online jealousy at Time 2. These findings highlight the reciprocal and dyadic influences of social media jealousy and IPV and provide a better understanding of the potential risks associated with social media use in young adults’ romantic relationships.     

Gratifications of using Facebook,Twitter, Instagram,or Snapchat to follow brands: The moderating effect of social comparison,trust, tie strength,and network homophily on brand identification,brand engagement,brand commitment,and membership intention

Applying uses and gratifications theory (UGT), this study examined consumers’ use of one of four social networking sites (SNSs): Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat, for following brands, and their influence on brand community-related outcomes. Results (N = 297) indicated Snapchat users scored highest for passing time, sharing problems, and improving social knowledge, while Instagram users scored highest for showing affection, following fashion, and demonstrating sociability. Twitter users had highest brand community identification and membership intention, while Instagram users had highest brand community engagement and commitment. Attention to social comparison, SNS trust, tie strength, and homophily also significantly moderated the relationship between frequent use of each SNS to follow brands, and brand community-related outcomes. Implications for future research on SNS users’ goal-directed consumption behaviors are discussed.     

Elucidating determinants of customer satisfaction with live-stream shopping: An extension of the information systems success model

Live-stream shopping has witnessed a leap in development since the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak. However, research exploring the determinants of live-stream customer satisfaction remains limited. The current study integrated the information systems success model, argument quality, media richness theory, and the source credibility model to investigate the indicators of customer satisfaction with live-stream shopping. Structural equation modeling and AMOS24 were employed to analyze data collected from 237 Chinese consumers. The results indicate that consumers’ satisfaction with live-stream shopping was determined by the quality of information, services, and arguments. Both source expertise and media richness were significant antecedents of information, service, and argument quality. In addition, social presence mediated the relationships of media richness with information, service, and argument quality. Finally, the mediating roles of trustworthiness in the relationships of source expertise with information, service, and argument quality were confirmed.     

Snapping and chatting away: Consumer motivations for and outcomes of interacting with Snapchat AR ad lens

Snapchat AR ad lens is one of the highly engaging and interactive ads among the plethora of social media advertising formats. Applying the uses and gratifications (U&G) theory and social media advertising engagement (SMAE) framework, two survey studies were conducted to enhance our understanding of consumers’ motivations for interacting with this unique Snapchat ad format and its subsequent effects. With the use of exploratory research, Study 1 uncovered consumers’ motivations to interact with the Snapchat AR ad lens: entertainment, aesthetics, uniqueness, curiosity, brand fan, and social interaction. Furthermore, Study 2 cemented consumers’ disclosed motivations as antecedents of attitudinal perceptions of the Snapchat AR ad lens and examined its resultant outcomes: ad engagement and purchase motivation. The results revealed that the majority of motivations had a positive effect on Snapchatters’ attitude toward the AR ad lens, which directly affected continuous ad engagement and indirectly affected purchase motivation through ad engagement. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed for scholars and practitioners.     

Reexamining the relationship between social media and happiness: The effects of various social media platforms on reconceptualized happiness

The current study reexamined the relationship between social media use and happiness by broadening the scope of social media and rethinking the conceptualization of happiness. Specifically, this study included platforms other than Facebook and tested differential effects of each platform. Because happiness is not entirely relative, it was hypothesized that social comparison would influence only relative happiness, which is only one part of overall happiness. A two-wave longitudinal survey among Korean females revealed that the use of blogs, Instagram, and LinkedIn is positively associated with social comparison at Wave 1 (W1), whereas Twitter is negatively associated. LinkedIn use was most strongly associated with social comparison. In turn, social comparison at W1 negatively predicted relative happiness at W2 (“I am happier than my friends”) but did not predict overall happiness at W2. Social media may lead us to believe that other people’s lives are better through social comparison. However, such comparison influences only part of overall happiness or life satisfaction. Without social comparison, social media have the potential to make us happier.     

“To be able to change,you have to take risks #fitspo”: Exploring correlates of fitspirational social media use among young women

Posting and viewing fitspiration-related content is a new social media trend. Although some say that fitspiration inspires women towards an empowered body image, others argue that fitspirational social media use may negatively influence women’s body image. To address these concerns, the current study (359 women; ages 18–28?years) investigated how exposure to four types of fitspirational social media messages related to three indicators of body image: body dissatisfaction, compulsive exercise, and situated optimism related to body goals. Moreover, we investigated the role of two individual difference variables in predicting women’s exposure to fitspirational messages and moderating the relationships between exposure and indicators of body image: thin-ideal internalization and fit-ideal internalization. Overall, the study provides support for both positive and negative correlates of fitspirational social media use. In addition, the findings provide initial evidence that individual difference variables differentially predict exposure to certain types of fitspirational content and moderate the relationship between fitspirational social media and body image related variables. Thus, this study emphasizes that the relationship between fitspirational social media and body image involves a complex interaction between characteristics of consumers and the exact content that is being consumed.     

Association between psychosocial well-being and problematic social media use among Finnish young adults: A cross-sectional study

The aim of the study was to identify associations between problematic social media use (PSMU), type of internet activity, various background factors, psychosocial factors (mood, fear of missing out, need to belong, social relationships) and the COVID-19-pandemic’s impacts on social media use among young adults in Finland. Data were collected from 381 young adults aged 18–35 (M = 26.01; SD = 4.55) in Finland through a web-based survey conducted during the autumn of 2020. PSMU was identified using the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale. Nine types of social media platform used were considered. Information about health-related factors was assessed using Beck Depression Inventory scale and a further single question. Social factors were measured using the Fear of Missing Out scale, the Single Item Need to Belong scale, and social engagement scale. 9.8 % of participants were found to exhibit PSMU. Younger people and women were more prone to PSMU. Social networking sites were the most used platform and were more strongly related to PSMU. Social media engagement, depression, fear of missing out and the effects of the pandemic on social media use were all positively and significantly associated with PSMU. These results may facilitate the development of guidelines for healthy social media use, and early detection of PSMU.     

Social participation of the elderly in China: The roles of conventional media,digital access and social media engagement

China is the most rapidly aging country and has the largest aging population in the world. However, social participation is an important intervention to boost the active and healthy aging. The present study investigated the effects of media usage, together with social-demographics and health variables, on Chinese older adults. Drawing upon a national research project with a representative sample (N = 1,399) of older adults (55+) from 58 cities in China, the research findings revealed that conventional media, digital access and social media usage had positive effects on older adults’ informal social participation, while age moderated the relationship between informal social participation and digital access, particularly regarding access to tablet PCs and smartphones. Moreover, conventional media, digital access and social media engagement largely explained seniors’ formal social participation regardless of their social-demographic backgrounds. Finally, the roles of conventional media and digital media in older adults’ social participation are discussed.     

User-orientated perspective of social media used by campaigns

Campaigns have increasingly resorted to Facebook because it has the highest number of users among social media platforms. The question as to whether Facebook is a more favorable choice of social media than a blog for political purposes must be addressed. In this comparative study, cross-sectional data collected in the 2009 and 2014 Taiwan local elections were used for exploring the differences among voter motivations, perceived credibility, and dependency between the use of political blogs and Facebook. In addition, the impact factors regarding the relationship between blogs and Facebook dependency were analyzed. The findings indicate that voter motivations, perceived credibility, and dependency were higher for political blogs than they were for Facebook, suggesting that in a political context, people prefer blogs to Facebook. The results of regression analyses indicate that the motivation for debating political topics was a significant predictor of the dependency on blogs, whereas motivations for general information and entertainment were related to Facebook use. The perceived credibility was not related to blog use; however, accuracy and information depth were significant factors for the use of Facebook. The reasons for the differences between peoples’ use of political blogs and Facebook are discussed in this paper. This study advances our understanding on the variations in people’s use of different social media platforms in a political context, and few studies have investigated this topic from a user-oriented perspective.     

The interplay between social media virality metrics and message framing in influence perception of pro-environmental messages and behavioral intentions

Present study explored how message framing (gain vs loss) and social media virality metrics (e.g. the number of ‘likes’ and ‘shares’; SMVM) affect pro-environmental message’s influence perception and behavioral intention. In a 2 (framing: gain vs loss) × 2 (SMVM: high vs low) between-subjects experiment (N = 404), participants were exposed to Facebook posts about mitigating climate change. Major findings indicate: (1) gain framing, compared to loss, resulted in increased social desirability perception of pro-environmental messages when they are accompanied by high numbers of likes and shares; (2) social desirability perception mediated the effect of message framing on third person perception (TPP) but not on second person perception (SPP); (3) numbers of likes and shares affected participants’ message influence perceptions (TPP and SPP), and this was mediated by social desirability perception; and (4) message influence perceptions were found to be significant predictors of participants’ intentions for climate change mitigation actions. Study results implicate that SMVM can signal media content popularity and this can further affect social desirability and influence perceptions of the content. Message framing appeared to have an effect on how one thinks media content influence other people, especially in the presence of high levels of endorsement by others. The potential role of SPP, the perception of shared media influence, in augmenting public awareness and engagement is discussed in detail.     

Facebook ads not working in the same way: The effect of cultural orientation and message construals on consumer response to social media ads

The research examined the impacts of psychological distance and message type on social media by cultural orientation. This research assessed social media usage and construal levels on Facebook pages in two cultures (Individualism – the U.S. vs. Collectivism – South Korea). While the U.S. participants had different levels of construals in two Facebook pages (News Feed vs. Timeline), the Korean participants did not. Further, the results demonstrated that for U.S. Facebook users, the different distances from the two Facebook pages impact their evaluation of ad messages framed with different construal terms: In News Feed that U.S. users feel distant from, an ad message framed with high construal terms (vs. low construal terms) was more effective. In Timeline that U.S. users feel proximal to, an ad message focusing on low construal terms (vs. high construal terms) led to more favorable response. However, Korean Facebook users did not exhibit varying psychological distances from those two Facebook pages. Rather, they consistently preferred high-level construal messages regardless of where the ad messages were posted. The importance of this study is the suggestion that cultural orientation and social media usage need to be considered for the development of particular ad messages that engage social media users across the globe.     

Traces of mobility: Examining location disclosure on social networks with mobile location tagging

The prevailing adoption of mobile devices has facilitated individuals’ engagement with location tagging; thus, location-based information sharing, which allows geolocation specificity and interaction on the Internet platforms, has become a popular activity in the space of social media. This spatiotemporal information provides a great potential opportunity for marketers as photos or videos shared among friends on social networking sites can be viewed as a type of word-of-mouth that may increase brand awareness and attract more users. Thus, understanding the underlying factors driving location tagging intentions provides significant value for practitioners. However, despite its importance, our understanding of this topic is limited. This research draws from social exchange theory and the theory of impression management to exemplify the underlying factors driving individuals to engage in photo or video sharing with location tagging on social media. Using an online survey, we recruited 402 users. We find that location tagging intention is driven by a facilitating route involving social benefits and functional benefits and an impeding route involving perceived risk related to privacy concerns. Our findings provide important academic and managerial implications.     

Augmentation and displacement effects of multiplayer social network games: Examining the roles of social interactions and co-players’ identities

The academic debate on whether gameplay has a positive or negative effect on players’ psychosocial well-being has yet to cease. To resolve this debate, this study focuses on multiplayer social network games (MSNGs), the affordances of which may lead to the coexistence of augmentation and displacement effects. To unpack the conditions under which gameplay has a positive or negative relationship with psychological well-being, this study distinguishes between co-player interaction modes (in-game social interactions vs. social media interactions) and between co-players’ identity types (offline friends/acquaintances vs. guild members). An online survey was conducted with 300 gamers in China. The results revealed that more in-game interaction with co-players was positively associated with players’ loneliness, whereas more social media interaction with co-players was negatively related to players’ loneliness, regardless of the co-players’ identities. However, players who played with offline friends/acquaintances did engage in more social interactions than those who played with guild members, especially social media interactions. Moreover, the effect of playing with friends/acquaintances or guild members on players’ loneliness was fully mediated by in-game social interactions and social media interactions. That is, the psychosocial influence of gameplay heavily depends on the exact social interactions that players are involved in rather than on general time spent in games, and the augmentation and displacement effects possibly coincide within one game.