The Metaverse: A new digital frontier for consumer behavior

Organizations increasingly use social media and especially social networking sites (SNS) to support their marketing agenda, enhance collaboration, and develop new capabilities. However, the success of SNS initiatives is largely dependent on sustainable user participation. In this study, we argue that the continuance intentions of users may be gender-sensitive. To theorize and investigate gender differences in the determinants of continuance intentions, this study draws on the expectation-confirmation model, the uses and gratification theory, as well as the self-construal theory and its extensions. Our survey of 488 users shows that while both men and women are motivated by the ability to self-enhance, there are some gender differences. Specifically, while women are mainly driven by relational uses, such as maintaining close ties and getting access to social information on close and distant networks, men base their continuance intentions on their ability to gain information of a general nature. Our research makes several contributions to the discourse in strategic information systems literature concerning the use of social media by individuals and organizations. Theoretically, it expands the understanding of the phenomenon of continuance intentions and specifically the role of the gender differences in its determinants. On a practical level, it delivers insights for SNS providers and marketers into how satisfaction and continuance intentions of male and female SNS users can be differentially promoted. Furthermore, as organizations increasingly rely on corporate social networks to foster collaboration and innovation, our insights deliver initial recommendations on how organizational social media initiatives can be supported with regard to gender-based differences.

Why men and women continue to use social networking sites: The role of gender differences

Social media influencers promote not only products and brands but also their opinions on serious topics like party politics or climate change. These so-called digital opinion leaders may exert a powerful impact on their followers’ political attitudes. Accordingly, we explore new directions to explain how influencers’ communication is related to political outcomes by proposing the concept of perceived simplification of politics (PSP). We argue that PSP may fuel political cynicism but also stimulate youth's interest in politics. We also explore important boundary conditions of these associations. We use data from three studies, a two-wave panel survey of adolescents (NT2 = 294), a cross-sectional survey of young adults (N = 632), and a two-wave panel survey of young adults (NT2 = 496) in Germany between 2019 and 2020. Findings of all three studies show that the frequency of exposure to social media influencers’ content increases PSP. In Studies 1 and 2, PSP is related to higher political cynicism, while in Study 3, this relationship is restricted to influencers’ communication about environmental topics and gender equality. Furthermore, Studies 2 and 3 suggest that PSP also increases political interest—yet this association requires a certain level of parasocial interaction (PSI) with the influencer and is contingent on specific political topics.

Politics – Simply Explained? How Influencers Affect Youth’s Perceived Simplification of Politics, Political Cynicism, and Political Interest

Reducing Resistance: The Impact of Nonfollowers’ and Followers’ Parasocial Relationships with Social Media Influencers on Persuasive Resistance and Advertising Effectiveness

ABSTRACT Influencers, characterized by their social-media-made fame, are known for endorsing brands, but are also producing political content, which has been shown to resonate with youth. However, research on how their political messages impact young people’s political involvement is still scarce. To address this lacuna, we conducted a two-wave panel study (N W2 = 496) among youth aged 16 to 25 years to investigate links between following political influencers, young people’s internal political efficacy, and political participation. We draw from the two-step flow of communication and opinion leadership literature to explain influencers’ impact on young people’s political behavior. Moreover, we advance the theoretical argument that influencers may not only relay political news, but also render it more comprehensible for youth. Influencers may thereby raise young people’s confidence in their political self-competence, and consequently affect their level of political participation. We find that followers’ internal political efficacy is predicted by following political influencers at moderate to high levels of perceived simplification of politics by influencers. However, there is no link between internal political efficacy and political participation, which may be explained by influencers’ direct and short-term mobilizing effect on young people. Overall, our findings have important theoretical implications for contemporary understandings of opinion leadership in mediated contexts.

Influencers as Empowering Agents? Following Political Influencers, Internal Political Efficacy and Participation among Youth

The roles of YouTube videos and YouTubers for getting information about political and societal topics are becoming gradually more important to young people. Quantitative research about young people’s use and perception of YouTube-videos and their potential effects on opinion formation is sparse though. This cross-sectional quantitative study addresses this empirical gap. We examined young people’s analytic-critical evaluations of YouTubers and their videos about political and societal topics (YTPS-videos), and how these are affected by the young people’s age and gender. We analysed questionnaire data of 562 participants and divided them into three different age groups. Overall, the participants reported a moderate watching frequency of YTPS-videos. They also rated YTPS-videos as moderately credible and considered specific characteristics of YTPS-videos and their producers as being moderately indicative for fake news. When comparing to traditional TV news, YTPS-videos were perceived as more entertaining, emotional, funny, exciting, modern, and motivating but also as more subjective and manipulating. Regarding YouTubers, the participants ascribed them an important role model function, but criticised them for handling it rather irresponsibly. Concerning opinion formation processes, the participants reported of a rather unimportant role of YTPS-videos for their learning about political and societal topics. They also perceived themselves as less influenceable than other peers and younger people. Still, they prefer talking with friends instead of teachers about YTPS-videos. Age and gender also had effects on various scales. These results deliver essential data for future research and educational measures and opened up unexplored areas in this research field.

/pdf/influencers-on-youtube-a-quantitative-study-on-young-people-4mhooiwpck.pdf

Influencers on YouTube: a quantitative study on young people’s use and perception of videos about political and societal topics

Abstract Due to its prominent role in online social networks, avatar creation has become an important research topic in the field of computer-mediated communication. One main motive for creating avatars is the representation of one’s own identity. Previous research indicates that avatar creation depends on the activity context for which the avatar is created. Though, studies comparing avatar creation for a wide variety of activity contexts are still missing. The present study addresses this empirical gap by examining (1) the self-representation of physical, demographical, and personality characteristics through avatars, (2) differences in self-representation between various online activity contexts, and (3) between-participant variance in ascribed personality traits. Participants attributed physical, demographical, and personality characteristics to their avatar for one of six online activity contexts and indicated the same characteristics for their actual and ideal selves. We analysed the data of 568 participants and found a high level of congruence between demographical/physical characteristics of the avatar, the actual self, and the ideal self. Furthermore, we found an idealised representation of the avatar’s personality traits, which was affected by the specific activity context. Last, the between-participant variance in the avatar’s personality traits was mainly larger than the variance in the ideal self but smaller than the variance in the actual self, indicating a link between avatar creation and social norms. These results deliver new insights into the strategies behind avatar creation in different contexts and build a basis for future research and practical implications for developers and designers of virtual worlds. 

/pdf/self-representation-through-avatars-in-digital-environments-3qgrbftl.pdf

Self-representation through avatars in digital environments

Previous research on news perception has been dominated by a cognitively oriented perspective on reception processes, whereas emotions have been widely neglected. Consequently, it has remained open which features of a news story might elicit affective responses and hence modulate news perception, shifting the focus to the emotional potential of the narrative. According to the affective-disposition theory, the experience of suspense is the striving force of immersion in fictional dramas. Thereby, a positive affective disposition toward the protagonist of a story and a high likelihood of a bad ending should increase suspense that, in turn, should positively influence reading appreciation and lingering interest in the story. We investigated whether suspense and its determinants also play such a key role in the context of news stories. Study 1 (n = 263) successfully replicated results of an earlier study, whereas Studies 2 (n = 255) and 3 (n = 599) challenged the generalizability of some effects related to manipulated characteristics of a news story. In contrast, correlational relationships between perceived news characteristics were relatively stable. In particular, a higher liking of the protagonist and a higher perceived likelihood of a good versus bad ending were positively associated with suspense, reading appreciation, and lingering interest. This result indicates a preference for happy endings and it contradicts the notion that likely negative outcomes are beneficial for suspense and the enjoyment of news stories, as postulated by the affective-disposition theory in the context of fictional dramas. Moreover, experienced suspense reliably mediated the correlations between, on the one hand, participants’ liking of the protagonist and the perceived likelihood of a good ending and, on the other hand, reading appreciation and lingering interest. The news story’s personal relevance was less influential than expected. Further, we observed a large absence of interaction effects, indicating that central characteristics of a news story can be independently varied to a large degree. In a nutshell, we may conclude that suspense significantly mediates the correlation between perceived news characteristics and the enjoyment of news stories, whereas manipulations of news characteristics do not necessarily influence the enjoyment of narratives as desired.

/pdf/thrilling-news-revisited-the-role-of-suspense-for-the-2olc5z69ld.pdf

Thrilling news revisited: The role of suspense for the enjoyment of news stories

Virtual reality versus classic presentations of mass media campaigns: Effectiveness and psychological mechanisms using the example of environmental protection

Social networking sites (SNS) are increasingly used by consumers to read and share political news. In this context, Instagram plays an important role due to its prevalence and visual characteristics. However, previous research has highlighted that consumers fail to identify the source of online news, though source characteristics were shown to be vital for news credibility perceptions. Nevertheless, research on whether and which source characteristics have an influence on Instagram consumers’ credibility perceptions and news engagement intentions are lacking. The present study addresses this empirical gap by investigating potential effects of source expertise and source type on source credibility, message credibility, news engagement intentions, and personal involvement regarding political news on Instagram.We randomly presented participants with political news posts from one of four sources, either the Instagram representation of a fictional news magazine or influencer with or without political expertise. Participants assessed the perceived credibility of the source and the news, their news engagement intentions, and personal involvement.We analyzed data from 416 participants. Results showed significant main effects of source expertise on each of the dependent variables. Those were shown to be indirect effects through personal involvement. There were hardly any effects of source type.These results provide new insights into the role of source expertise on credibility perceptions and news engagement intentions, and provide insights into the comparison between influencers and Instagram representations of traditional news magazines. Theoretical implications for future research and practical implications for content creators, users, and SNS platforms are discussed.

Political news on Instagram: influencer versus traditional magazine and the role of their expertise in consumers’ credibility perceptions and news engagement

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