The use of social media is pervasive among young adults, but not all posted content is necessarily appropriate.
Now a new study by the 探花视频 investigates why young adults might post content on social media that contains sexual or offensive material.
Led by Dr Claire White from the University鈥檚 School of Psychology, the study suggests that such risky social media posts are not just due to impulsivity, but might be a deliberate strategy to fit in with the wider social media culture that makes people believe 鈥榠t鈥檚 the right thing to do鈥.
Existing studies show that impulsiveness is predictive of online risk taking behaviours, but this additional research with British and Italian young adults highlighted that high self-monitoring 鈥 or adapting behaviour in line with perceived social norms 鈥 was equally predictive of posting risky content, which Dr White says could mean young people think it鈥檚 the best way to behave.
To measure risky online self-presentation the research team, which also included PhD student Clara Cutello, Dr Michaela Gummerum and Professor Yaniv Hanoch from the School of Psychology, designed a risk exposure scale relating to potentially inappropriate images or texts, such as drug and alcohol use, sexual content, personal information, and offensive material. They also evaluated people鈥檚 level of self-monitoring and impulsivity.
Dr White said:
鈥淚t鈥檚 counterintuitive really because it would be easy to assume that a high self-monitor would question their actions and adapt accordingly. But the results show that high self-monitors are just as likely to post risky content as those in the study who are more impulsive, which suggests they think it鈥檚 not only OK to be risky 鈥 and potentially offensive 鈥 but that it鈥檚 actually the right thing to do.
鈥淭he only notable difference between the nationalities was that British students were more likely to post comments and images related to their alcohol and drug use on social media, whereas their Italian counterparts were more likely to post offensive content and personal information.
鈥淭his difference shows that culture as a whole seems to play a part in what type of content is shared. But the fact that the behaviours predicting risky online choices are the same for both nationalities suggests there鈥檚 a wider social media culture that encourages this type of risk-taking behaviour.鈥
The full paper, entitled A Cross-Cultural Study of Risky Online Self-Presentation, is available to view now in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking doi:
