Summary Social Media: Risks &
Opportunities
Tilburg University 2022-2023
880646-M-6
This document contains all relevant material for the exam, including the lectures, and the mandatory
literature for the Master’s course Social Media: Risks & Opportunities.
Celeste Graumans
,Inhoud
Lecture 1; Introduction ............................................................................................................4
Lecture 1; Introduction ........................................................................................................4
Lecture 2; Experiencing online aggression .............................................................................4
Lecture 2; Literature ............................................................................................................4
Pabian et al. (2015) – Dark Triad personality traits and adolescent cyber-aggression .....4
Pabian & Vandenbosch (2014) – Using the theory of planned behavior to understand
cyberbullying: the importance of beliefs for developing interventions ...............................5
Pabian & Vandenbosch (2019) – Perceived long-term outcomes of early traditional and
cyberbullying victimization among emerging adults .........................................................6
Lecture 2; Experiencing online aggression ..........................................................................8
Lecture 3; Online prosocial behavior ....................................................................................14
Lecture 3; Literature ..........................................................................................................14
Erreygers et al. (2019) – Feel good, do good online? Spillover and crossover effects of
happiness on adolescents’ online prosocial behavior ....................................................14
Guo et al. (2018) – Shyness and online prosocial behavior: A study on multiple
mediation mechanisms ..................................................................................................16
Bartsch & Kloß (2019) – Personalized charity advertising. Can personalized prosocial
messages promote empathy, attitude change, and helping intentions toward stigmatized
social groups? ...............................................................................................................18
Lecture 3; Online prosocial behavior .................................................................................19
Lecture 4; Witnessing online aggression ..............................................................................26
Lecture 4; Literature ..........................................................................................................26
Pabian et al. (2016) – Exposure to cyberbullying as a bystander. An investigation of
desensitization effects among early adolescents ...........................................................26
Van Cleemput et al. (2014) – Personal characteristics and contextual factors that
determine “helping”, “joining in”, and “doing nothing” when witnessing cyberbullying ....27
Lecture 4; Witnessing online aggression ...........................................................................30
Lecture 5; Online support .....................................................................................................34
Lecture 5; Literature ..........................................................................................................34
Smit et al. (2021) – A newly developed online peer support community for depression
(depression connect): Qualitative study .........................................................................34
Van Wezel et al. (2021) – “I’m here for you”: Can social chatbots truly support their
users? A literature review ..............................................................................................37
Lecture 5; Online support ..................................................................................................38
Lecture 5; Guest lecture – Marloes van Wezel ..................................................................39
Lecture 6; Celebrity bashing .................................................................................................42
Lecture 6; Literature ..........................................................................................................42
Ouvrein et al. (2018) – Setting a bad example: Peer, parental and celebrity norms
predict celebrity bashing ................................................................................................42
Ouvrein et al. (2021) – Bashed at first sight: The experiences and coping strategies of
reality TV stars confronted with celebrity bashing ..........................................................44
Lecture 6; Celebrity bashing .............................................................................................45
,Lecture 7; Risky selfie taking & posting ................................................................................50
Lecture 7; Literature ..........................................................................................................50
Chen et al. (2019) – Daredevils on social media: A comprehensive approach toward
risky selfie behavior among adolescents .......................................................................50
Lecture 7; Risky selfie taking & posting .............................................................................52
Lecture 8; Online friendships ................................................................................................55
Lecture 8; Literature ..........................................................................................................55
Ryan et al. (2017) – How social are social media? A review of online social behavior and
connectedness ..............................................................................................................55
Beak et al. (2013) – Social and parasocial relationships on social network sites and their
differential relationships with users’ psychological well-being ........................................57
Lecture 8; Online friendships ............................................................................................58
Lecture 9; Parental mediation ...............................................................................................63
Lecture 9; Literature ..........................................................................................................63
Steinfeld (2021) – Parental mediation of adolescent internet use: combining strategies to
promote awareness, autonomy, and self-regulation in preparing youth for life on the web
......................................................................................................................................63
Symons et al. (2020) – Parent-child communication about internet use and acceptance
of parental authority.......................................................................................................66
Lecture 9; Avoiding risk behavior among adolescents: parental mediation ........................68
Lecture 10; Body positivity ....................................................................................................74
Lecture 10; Literature ........................................................................................................74
Cohen et al. (2021) – The case for body positivity on social media: Perspectives on
current advances and future direction............................................................................74
Nelson et al. (2022) – The effects of body-positive Instagram posts on body image in
adult women ..................................................................................................................75
Lecture 10; Online activism: body positivity movement on social media ............................76
Lecture 11; Sexting & cyber dating abuse ............................................................................80
Lecture 11; Literature ........................................................................................................80
Morelli et al. (2016) – Sexting, psychological distress and dating violence among
adolescents and young adults .......................................................................................80
Bianchi et al. (2021) – A bad romance: Sexting motivations and teen dating violence ...81
Lecture 11; Guest lecture – Maria Rosaria Nappa ............................................................82
Possible exam questions ......................................................................................................88
, Lecture 1; Introduction
Lecture 1; Introduction
Fabio
- A Greek celebrity/actor was on a rollercoaster to promote the attraction
- First ride on the rollercoaster
- But when the ride was done, his face was all red, see picture
- Fabio killed a goose with his face on the rollercoaster
- This happened in a time when there were no social media (20 years ago)
- Nowadays, this would probably turn into a meme, or it would go viral
Key terms
- Social media: websites and 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 change for… (benefit you)
Lecture 2; Experiencing online aggression
Lecture 2; Literature
Pabian et al. (2015) – Dark Triad personality traits and adolescent cyber-
aggression
- Cyber-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
Cyber-aggression and Dark Triad personality traits
- Machiavellianism: manipulative strategies of social conduct that are not correlated
with general intelligence and do not necessarily lead to success.
- Narcissism: a sense of importance and uniqueness, fantasies of unlimited success,
requesting constant attention, expecting special favors, and being interpersonally
exploitative.
- Psychopathy: an impulsive behavioral style, an arrogant, deceitful interpersonal
style, and a deficient affective experience.
Aggression was highest among those who scored high on narcissism, especially those who
also show psychopathic callous-unemotional traits.
Results
- 1/3 respondents indicated that they were
engaged at least once in the past 3 months in
one or more than one of the 8 cyber-
aggression activities.
- The psychopathy dimension significantly
related to adolescents’ cyber-aggression
- The Machiavellianism dimension significantly
correlates with Facebook’s intensity
- Facebook intensity significantly relates to
adolescents’ cyber-aggression
- All results are after controls for gender and
age
, Pabian & Vandenbosch (2014) – Using the theory of planned behavior to
understand cyberbullying: the importance of beliefs for developing
interventions
The study of proximal determinants of cyberbullying determines the behavior more directly.
Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)
Posits that people’s intention to perform a certain behavior is the best predictor of their actual
behavior.
3 belief-based concepts:
1. Attitude (A): a person’s global affective evaluation of a behavior
2. The subjective norm (SN): the perception of what others think of the behavior
3. The perceived behavioral control (PBC): the perceived ease of difficulty of
performing the behavior
As a general rule, the more favorable attitude and subjective norm concerning behavior, and
the greater the perceived behavioral control, the stronger an individual’s intention to perform
the behavior should be under consideration.
Heriman and Walrave (2012) have demonstrated that the TPB provides a useful model for
studying cyberbullying (with only direct measurements of the key concepts). The study does
not provide information about the beliefs underlying:
- Attitude: why are attitudes positive or negative?
- Subjective norm: which reference groups ultimately generate a positive or negative
influence?
- Perceived behavioral control: what makes cyberbullying easy or difficult to
perform?
Beliefs underlying the attitude toward cyberbullying
A person’s attitude is based on his/her behavioral beliefs
- Benefits of cyberbullying: it enhances or reconfirms the adolescent’s status in the
peer group and might provide a way to vent negative feelings (such as anger,
revenge, or jealousy) or to evoke positive feelings (such as feeling funny, more
powerful, and better than others)
- Negative outcomes: disapproval by peers and punishments by parents, teachers,
and schools, just like possible feelings of guilt or knowing that the victim is hurt.
Beliefs underlying the subjective norm towards cyberbullying
The subjective norm is the perception of what others think of the behavior and is formed by
normative beliefs.
- Injunctive norm beliefs: expectations about whether people from several reference
groups (friends or parents) think that the person should perform the given behavior or
not
- Descriptive norm beliefs: what others do
- Social pressure: a more directly experienced social influence
There is a positive relationship between being involved as a bystander and being involved as
a perpetrator of cyberbullying
Seeing others perform the behavior (descriptive norm), might lead to subjective beliefs about
their (positive) attitude towards cyberbullying (injunctive norm), and may also create ‘real’
social pressure (to join in).
Beliefs underlying the perceived behavioral control
The perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behavior is based on control beliefs.
, - Control beliefs: how likely a person feels that particular factors could make it easier
or more difficult to perform the behavior.
o The (perceived) anonymity and the associated (lower) risk of being caught
might play a facilitating role.
o The lack of direct, face-to-face contact may make people feel less restrained
about saying and doing hurtful things.
o Having the necessary ICT skills and feeling confident in using ICT may render
cyberbullying an easy-to-perform behavior
Results
- Attitude is the best predictor of the intention, followed by subjective norm
- The perceived behavioral control has
no significant effect on the intention
- Emotional release beliefs and peer
group benefits are predictors of
attitude
- What peers are believed to think
(approval by peers) and what they
actually do (descriptive norm) are
positive predictors of the subjective
norm
- Characteristics of the ICT
environment and ICT knowledge are
predictors of perceived behavioral
control
Conclusion and discussion
- The results reveal that the theoretical model fits the sample.
- Intention to engage in cyberbullying is a predictor of self-reported cyberbullying
behavior 6 months later
- The attitude is mainly (positively) influenced by the perception of cyberbullying as an
effective way to vent negative feelings
- They also underline the importance of teaching adolescents to deal more adequately
with negative experiences
- Moral feelings are negatively related to the attitude toward cyberbullying
- For intervention programs, this means that increasing empathy for cyberbullying
victims or referring to anticipated regret might be a suitable strategy
- Peers are indeed the most influential reference group
Pabian & Vandenbosch (2019) – Perceived long-term outcomes of early
traditional and cyberbullying victimization among emerging adults
Today’s emerging adults are the first generation that could have been victimized both offline
and online.
- Bullying: an aggressive, intentional act or behavior that is carried out by a group or
an individual repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him-
or herself.
- Cyberbullying: you can perform the behavior anonymously and without directly
facing the victim. Also, cyberbullies are less restricted in time and space and their
acts can reach a large audience
, Previous research has indicated moderate to strong overlaps between being a victim of
traditional bullying and cyberbullying.
- Victimization during childhood and adolescence can have negative consequences
even years or decades after being bullied
Long-term outcomes of traditional bullying
- Early traditional bullying victimization has an impact on different aspects of mental
health, including general psychological complaints, depression, anxiety, self-harm
and suicidality, post-traumatic stress, self-esteem, pessimistic life orientation, and
eating disorders
- Traditional bullying victimization can have long-term aversive effects on physical
health, such as general health problems, obesity, and sleeping problems
- Also negatively affects wealth, as it leads to lower education, less income, and poor
financial management
- Also influences have been found in the domain of social functioning, including having
trouble keeping friends, poorer relationship with spouse/partner, poorer relationship
with parents, fear of negative evaluation, difficulties with forming lasting relationships,
and trouble integrating into the work environment
Possible consequences of cyberbullying
- Emerging adults who were cyberbullied during middle and/or high school experience
significantly higher levels of anxiety and stress, but not depression
Results
- The emerging adults attributed a wide range of outcomes to early bullying
victimization.
- Emerging adults perceived impacts on one’s current social interactions, including
sharing personal information and coping with conflicts, aggression, and bullying, and
who one is as an emerging adult (i.e., one’s anxieties, self-esteem, empathy, and
resilience)
5 categories of coping
1. Sought support, such as from a friend, sibling, teacher, school principal, parent, or a
health professional
2. Applied technical solutions, such as blocking the bully or removing the hurtful
messages/images
3. Tended to avoid or ignore the perpetrator(s) and/or the bully incidents
4. Confronted the bully in an aggressive way (using physical aggression, saying
something hurtful back, and venting negative feelings using bullying somebody else)
5. Mental coping, such as self-blaming and rumination
All participants indicated that their bullying victimization both offline and online, during
childhood and/or adolescence has impacted many facets of their current life
Perceived impact on social interaction today
- Avoiding past triggers/reasons for bullying: disclosed what in their eyes were
potential triggers or reasons for being attacked by the bullies during childhood and
adolescence (physical appearance, personality, behavior, and preferences)
- Sharing personal information: today they are more on guard than they used to be
about sharing personal details in both the offline and online environment due to their
bullying victimization offline and/or online (insecurities, secrets, identity information,
and embarrassing or sexy pictures)
