A Social Safety Net? Incentives for sharing political information online

Summary, in English

This paper explores the relationship between sensitivity to rejection and using social media for political activity. We hypothesize that individuals who are afraid of being rejected behave differently when using social media than the ones who are less sensitive to rejection. We argue that “rejection sensitive” individuals are less likely to share political information in social media, since the recipient is more anonymous than in real-life communication. Starting from theories on social influence on political participation, we elaborate the relationship between age, rejection sensitivity, and political opinion-making. Combining a unique survey on psychological characteristics and political activities with focus groups interviews with Swedish youth lends credence to the central idea. Younger citizens are in general more sensitive to social rejection, and less inclined to influence others politically in social media. On the other hand, younger citizens are more politically active in social media.
This research was financially supported by the Marianne och Marcus Wallenberg Foundation

• Författare: Annika Fredén; Nils Gustafsson; Emma Bäck; Hanna Bäck
• Avdelning/ar: Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; Institutionen för strategisk kommunikation
• Publiceringsår: 2017-10-05
• Språk: Engelska
• Fulltext: - 181 kB; Download statistics
• Dokumenttyp: Konferensbidrag
• Ämne: Psychology (excluding Applied Psychology); Political Science (excluding Peace and Conflict Studies); Media and Communication Studies
• Nyckelord: social media; social network sites; political participation; political psychology; Personality traits
• Conference name: SWEPSA Swedish Political Science Association Annual Conference
• Conference date: 2017-10-04 - 2017-10-06
• Conference place: Karlstad, Sweden
• Aktiv: Published
• Projekt: Political participation among young people – from party democrats to social media activists?