Citation

Chiou WB, Chen SW, Liao DC. Cyberpsychol. Behav. Soc. Netw. 2014; 17(2): 68-73.

Affiliation

1 Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-sen University , Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Republic of China .

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/cyber.2013.0035

PMID

24102570

Abstract

Communication tools on social networking sites (SNSs) provide users with an efficient way to distribute information to the public and/or their friends simultaneously. In this article, we show that this kind of indiscriminate one-to-many (i.e., monologue) communication, in which the diverse interests of recipients are not considered, may induce a tendency toward egocentrism that interferes with other-oriented concerns, resulting in a reduced inclination to display prosocial behavior. In Experiment 1, participants induced to post a public communication subsequently allocated less money to anonymous strangers in the dictator game than did control participants. In Experiment 2, participants directing a post about participation in an experiment to their Facebook friends volunteered to help code fewer data sheets than did controls. Moreover, an egocentric state was shown to mediate the relationship between indiscriminate one-to-many communication and helping behavior. We provide the first demonstration that indiscriminate one-to-many communication on online social networks may be associated with a tendency toward self-interest. Our results suggest that the prevalence of monologue communication on SNSs may induce an egocentric tendency that undermines the likelihood of prosocial behavior.

Language: en