Misery doesn’t love company:
An exploration of emotional bandwidth on online social networks
Student researchers:
Saraswathi Bellur (Graduate Student)
Andy High (Graduate Student)
Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch (Graduate Student)
This paper was based on a project as part of the Psychological Aspects
of Communication Technology course.
Faculty Supervisor:
Dr. S. Shyam Sundar
Introduction
With the popularity and growth of online social networks such as Facebook,
it becomes imperative to understand how users of these sites are employing
them and whether these sites are appropriate venues to gain social support.
Because computer-mediated communication (CMC) is becoming increasingly
more attractive for expressing oneself due to the potential for strategic
self-presentation, these types of sites might provide a satisfactory level
of social support and interpersonal connection. Furthermore, these findings
provide design implications for the effective use of online social networks
research question
H1a: Higher emotional bandwidth will lead to higher perceived availability
of social support
H1b: Social presence should mediate the relationship between emotional
bandwidth and social support
H1c: Group Catharsis should mediate the relationship between emotional
bandwidth and social support
H2a: Higher emotional bandwidth will lead to higher perceptions of support
satisfaction
H2b: Social presence should mediate the relationship between emotional
bandwidth and support satisfaction
H2c: Group Catharsis should mediate the relationship between emotional
bandwidth and support satisfaction
H3: Gender serves as a moderator in the relationship between emotional
bandwidth and perceived social support such that females should report
higher perceptions of social support than will men for profiles with a
high emotional bandwidth.
H4: Gender serves as a moderator in the relationship between emotional
bandwidth and liking such that females will report higher levels of liking
than will men for profiles high in emotional bandwidth.
H5a: Higher emotional bandwidth leads to greater liking.
H5b: Perceived community should mediate the relationship between emotional
bandwidth and liking.
H6a: Higher emotional bandwidth leads to greater chance of befriending.
H6b: Perceived community should mediate the relationship between emotional
bandwidth and befriending.
RQ1: Does preference for online social interaction (POSI) moderate the
relationship between emotional bandwidth and social support?
RQ2: Does preference for online social interaction (POSI) moderate the
relationship between emotional bandwidth and liking?
Method
Using the Facebook site and Photoshop, three fake Facebook profiles were
created with varying levels of emotional bandwidth by manipulating the
status features on Facebook. In the profile was a young woman who had
recently ended her relationship and made her negative feelings very clear
on her profile. In addition, she was provided messages of support from
her friends. Participants rated one of these profiles to which they were
randomly assigned on perceived network support, emotional network support,
perceived support satisfaction, and liking of the profile person.
Results
Results show that participants preferred Profile A, the profile with
lowest bandwidth, were most likely to befriend the person in this profile,
and rated it highest on perceived network support and emotional network
support, which is contrary to our hypotheses. [Place Fig01 here. Fig01
Title – Emotional Bandwidth on Network Support, p <. 05]. Social
presence, perceived community, and befriending had significant effects
on the three support variables, but did not mediate the relationship between
emotional bandwidth and these dependent variables. Preference for online
social interaction and perceived catharsis were significant moderators
of the support variables. [“Place Figure02 and Figure 03 here”.
Fig02 Title – Interaction effect of Profile X POSI on Emotional
Support, p < .05. Fig03 Title - Interaction effect of Profile X Catharsis
on Emotional Support, p < .05]
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