Taylor Young

Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Cottrell, Catherine

Area of Concentration

Psychology with Computer Science

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate group membership on social media and how it can affect interaction on social media and action offline after discussion. Participants first completed a dot estimation task to ostensibly place them in groups; in reality, they were randomly assigned to their groups. They were then asked to interact with a simulated Facebook feed with posts by members from their group (an ingroup member) and the other group (an outgroup member). After the simulation feed, participants answered questions about a discussion post from the simulated Facebook feed. They were asked about the persuasiveness of the discussion post, their likelihood to act offline, whether they supported the cause in the discussion post, and their donation to the cause. In all, there were no statistical differences between reactions toward the ingroup versus the outgroup members for interactions on the discussion post, perceived persuasiveness of the discussion post, and donation to the cause. There was a difference between the ingroup and outgroup conditions for some events, such that participants were more willing to act offline when the poster was an ingroup member than an outgroup member. The findings suggest that the issue can be acknowledged online, but posts by ingroup members can push people to take the extra step and act offline.

Download

Share

COinS