[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0229337.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Susceptibility to social influence predicts behavior on Facebook

Author

Listed:
  • Sabrina Stöckli
  • Doris Hofer
Abstract
Susceptibility to social influence (SSI) has been reported as a key factor for social influence in online social networks (OSNs) such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In four online studies, we show that the personality trait of SSI, namely the susceptibility to normative influence (SNI), predicts the extent to which Facebook users comply with the behavior of others on Facebook (e.g., buying, voting, or visiting what other OSN users post). In Studies 1a and 1b, we find that SSI correlates with diverse OSN behaviors, which are the typical results of being affected by social influence. In Study 1b, we find that the perceived importance of the topic of OSN behaviors (e.g., fashion or politics) moderates the effect of SNI on OSN behavior, with a higher importance resulting in a stronger effect of SNI on OSN behavior. In Studies 2 and 3, we find that SNI predicts the extent Facebook users hypothetically “like” diverse topics on Facebook. We also find partial support for the idea that there are interactions between SNI and the Big Five personality traits (i.e., openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) on OSN behavior. Specifically, the extent to which the Big Five personality traits of openness, agreeableness, and neuroticism predict OSN behavior depends on Facebook users’ SNI. Our studies contribute to research on the personality-based prediction of OSN behavior and help in better understanding the dynamics of social influence in OSNs, underlining the vulnerability of susceptible OSN users.

Suggested Citation

  • Sabrina Stöckli & Doris Hofer, 2020. "Susceptibility to social influence predicts behavior on Facebook," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-20, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0229337
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0229337
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0229337
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0229337&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0229337?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tian, Kelly Tepper & Bearden, William O & Hunter, Gary L, 2001. "Consumer's Need for Uniqueness: Scale Development and Validation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 28(1), pages 50-66, June.
    2. Bearden, William O & Rose, Randall L, 1990. "Attention to Social Comparison Information: An Individual Difference Factor Affecting Consumer Conformity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(4), pages 461-471, March.
    3. Bearden, William O & Netemeyer, Richard G & Teel, Jesse E, 1989. "Measurement of Consumer Susceptibility to Interpersonal Influence," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 15(4), pages 473-481, March.
    4. Chen, Jie & Teng, Lefa & Yu, Ying & Yu, Xueer, 2016. "The effect of online information sources on purchase intentions between consumers with high and low susceptibility to informational influence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 467-475.
    5. David Modic & Ross Anderson & Jussi Palomäki, 2018. "We will make you like our research: The development of a susceptibility-to-persuasion scale," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, March.
    6. Robert M. Bond & Christopher J. Fariss & Jason J. Jones & Adam D. I. Kramer & Cameron Marlow & Jaime E. Settle & James H. Fowler, 2012. "A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization," Nature, Nature, vol. 489(7415), pages 295-298, September.
    7. Duncan J. Watts & Peter Sheridan Dodds, 2007. "Influentials, Networks, and Public Opinion Formation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(4), pages 441-458, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yuen, Kum Fai & Chua, Jessana & Li, Kevin X. & Wang, Xueqin, 2022. "Consumer's adoption of virtual reality technologies for marine conservation: Motivational and technology acceptance perspectives," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    2. Serwaah, Priscilla & Shneor, Rotem & Nyarko, Samuel Anokye & Nielsen, Kristian Roed, 2024. "Explaining gender differences in crowdfunding contribution intentions," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David Modic & Ross Anderson & Jussi Palomäki, 2018. "We will make you like our research: The development of a susceptibility-to-persuasion scale," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, March.
    2. Elaine Wallace & Isabel Buil & Leslie Chernatony, 2020. "‘Consuming Good’ on Social Media: What Can Conspicuous Virtue Signalling on Facebook Tell Us About Prosocial and Unethical Intentions?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(3), pages 577-592, March.
    3. Gentina, Elodie & Butori, Raphaëlle & Heath, Timothy B., 2014. "Unique but integrated: The role of individuation and assimilation processes in teen opinion leadership," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 83-91.
    4. Wang, Xia & Yu, Chunling & Wei, Yujie, 2012. "Social Media Peer Communication and Impacts on Purchase Intentions: A Consumer Socialization Framework," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 198-208.
    5. Jing Wang & Anocha Aribarg & Yves F. Atchadé, 2013. "Modeling Choice Interdependence in a Social Network," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(6), pages 977-997, November.
    6. Muller, Eitan & Peres, Renana, 2019. "The effect of social networks structure on innovation performance: A review and directions for research," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 3-19.
    7. Pengji Wang & Adrian T. H. Kuah & Qinye Lu & Caroline Wong & K. Thirumaran & Emmanuel Adegbite & Wesley Kendall, 2021. "The impact of value perceptions on purchase intention of sustainable luxury brands in China and the UK," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(3), pages 325-346, May.
    8. Ostovan, Nima & Khalili Nasr, Arash, 2022. "The manifestation of luxury value dimensions in brand engagement in self-concept," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    9. Bhukya, Ramulu & Paul, Justin, 2023. "Social influence research in consumer behavior: What we learned and what we need to learn? – A hybrid systematic literature review," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    10. Yuho Chung & Yiwei Li & Jianmin Jia, 2021. "Exploring embeddedness, centrality, and social influence on backer behavior: the role of backer networks in crowdfunding," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(5), pages 925-946, September.
    11. Das, Gopal & Mukherjee, Amaradri & Smith, Ronn J., 2018. "The Perfect Fit: The Moderating Role of Selling Cues on Hedonic and Utilitarian Product Types," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 203-216.
    12. Yi, Youjae & Gong, Taeshik, 2013. "Customer value co-creation behavior: Scale development and validation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1279-1284.
    13. Marike Venter & Richard Chinomona & Tinashe Chuchu, 2016. "Factors Influencing Fashion Adoption among the Youth in Johannesburg, South Africa," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 8(4), pages 92-108.
    14. Lascu, Dana-Nicoleta & Bearden, William O. & Rose, Randall L., 1995. "Norm extremity and interpersonal influences on consumer conformity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 201-212, March.
    15. Gurzki, Hannes & Woisetschläger, David M., 2017. "Mapping the luxury research landscape: A bibliometric citation analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 147-166.
    16. Kukar-Kinney, Monika & Xia, Lan, 2017. "The effectiveness of number of deals purchased in influencing consumers' response to daily deal promotions: A cue utilization approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 189-197.
    17. Chen, Jie & Teng, Lefa & Yu, Ying & Yu, Xueer, 2016. "The effect of online information sources on purchase intentions between consumers with high and low susceptibility to informational influence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 467-475.
    18. Martin Adam & Michael Wessel & Alexander Benlian, 2019. "Of early birds and phantoms: how sold-out discounts impact entrepreneurial success in reward-based crowdfunding," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 545-560, June.
    19. Jamal, Ahmad & Shukor, Syadiyah Abdul, 2014. "Antecedents and outcomes of interpersonal influences and the role of acculturation: The case of young British-Muslims," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 237-245.
    20. Donald R. Lehmann & Jeffrey R. Parker, 2017. "Disadoption," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 7(1), pages 36-51, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0229337. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.