| Literature DB >> 34305702 |
Haojian Li1, X T Wang1.
Abstract
Clicking the like button following a post on social media has become a common means of expressing and gathering social support online. Little is known about how liking expression is linked and regulated by personality traits and communication motives. Following a preliminary survey (n = 168) about the usage of the like function on WeChat, a Chinese social media platform, we conducted an online study (n = 183) to map the Big-Five personality traits and five communication motives to the frequency (likelihood) of liking expression. The results showed that each user had, on average, 385 WeChat friends and spent 2.2 hours and used the liking function 1.1 times each day on WeChat. The personality trait conscientiousness was negatively related to the liking expression (β = -0.505, p < 0.05). In contrast, agreeableness promoted the expression of liking directly (β = 0.153, p < 0.05) and indirectly via two communication motives, enjoyment (a: β = 0.377, p < 0.01; b: β = 0.433, p < 0.001) and passing time (c: β = 0.578, p < 0.05; d: β = 0.523, p < 0.001). The liking expression may serve as a simple index for understanding dispositional underpinnings of social media networking.Entities:
Keywords: WeChat; communication motives; cyberpersonality; liking expression; personality traits; social media
Year: 2021 PMID: 34305702 PMCID: PMC8295648 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.626040
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Front Psychol ISSN: 1664-1078
Means, standard deviations, intercorrelations between sex, age, personality traits, communication motives, and liking expression, and P-values with Benjamini–Hochberg correction.
| 1 | Gender | 1 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Age | 0.04 | 1 | |||||||||||
| 3 | Openess | −0.08 | −0.05 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Agreeableness | 0.05 | −0.06 | −0.02 | 1 | |||||||||
| 5 | Conscientiousness | −0.04 | −0.10 | 0.02 | 0.30 | 1 | ||||||||
| 6 | Extroversion | 0.03 | −0.15 | −0.05 | 0.46 | 0.47 | 1 | |||||||
| 7 | Neuroticism | 0.07 | 0.03 | 0.03 | −0.41 | −0.38 | −0.56 | 1 | ||||||
| 8 | Enjoyment | −0.19 | −0.08 | 0.00 | 0.20 | 0.05 | 0.13 | −0.01 | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Pleasing others | 0.03 | −0.06 | −0.09 | 0.16 | −0.15 | 0.06 | −0.10 | 0.31 | 1 | ||||
| 10 | Money incentive | 0.06 | −0.05 | −0.19 | 0.13 | −0.02 | 0.02 | −0.10 | 0.19 | 0.49 | 1 | |||
| 11 | Passing time | −0.11 | 0.01 | −0.15 | 0.16 | −0.1 | 0.08 | 0.02 | 0.15 | 0.38 | 0.21 | 1 | ||
| 12 | Interpersonal Relation | −0.11 | −0.10 | −0.08 | 0.18 | −0.07 | 0.001 | 0.02 | 0.49 | 0.64 | 0.30 | 0.38 | 1 | |
| 13 | −0.14 | −0.02 | −0.08 | 0.21 | −0.15 | 0.06 | 0.02 | 0.29 | 0.34 | 0.16 | 0.54 | 0.35 | 1 | |
| ns | ns | ns | 0.015 | ns | ns | ns | 0.00036 | 0.00001 | ns | 0.00001 | 0.00001 | |||
| Mean | 1.72 | 18.84 | 3.38 | 3.397 | 3.43 | 3.3 | 2.98 | 5.30 | 3.25 | 3.18 | 3.57 | 4.43 | 4.02 | |
| SD | 0.45 | 0.91 | 0.42 | 0.444 | 0.57 | 0.64 | 0.61 | 0.83 | 1.23 | 1.75 | 1.66 | 1.33 | 1.84 |
N = 183.
p < 0.05;
p < 0.01.
p-values with Benjamini–Hochberg correction.
ns, not significant.
Hierarchical regression results of the contributions of age and gender (first step), personality traits (second step), and communication motives (third step) to liking expression on WeChat.
| 1 | Gender | −0.566 | −0.139 | |
| Age | −0.026 | −0.013 | ||
| 2 | Gender | −0.743 | −0.183 | 1.028 |
| Age | −0.023 | −0.011 | ||
| Neuroticism | 0.359 | 0.12 | ||
| Extroversion | 0.3 | 0.105 | ||
| Conscientiousness | −0.806 | −0.250 | 1.337 | |
| Agreeableness | 1.231 | 0.297 | 1.341 | |
| Openness | −0.384 | −0.087 | ||
| 3 | Gender | −0.331 | −0.081 | |
| Age | −0.011 | −0.006 | ||
| Neuroticism | 0.133 | 0.045 | ||
| Extroversion | 0.041 | 0.014 | ||
| Conscientiousness | −0.456 | −0.142 | ||
| Agreeableness | 0.669 | 0.162 | 1.454 | |
| Openness | −0.078 | −0.018 | ||
| Pleasing others | 0.156 | 0.104 | ||
| Money incentive | −0.033 | −0.032 | ||
| Passing time | 0.477 | 0.431 | 1.319 | |
| Interpersonal relation | 0.001 | 0 | ||
| Enjoyment | 0.341 | 0.153 | 1.456 | |
| 0.02 | Adjusted | 0.09 | ||
| 0.142 | Adjusted | 0.107 | ||
| 0.378 | Adjusted | 0.334 | ||
| 0.54 | Adjusted | 0.531 | ||
N = 183.
p < 0.05;
p < 0.01;
p < 0.001.
Figure 1Relationship between personality, motivation, and liking expression.
A user profile of Liking expressions on WeChat (n = 168) with descriptive statistics of frequency estimates, likelihood (1 = rare, 2 = unlikely, 3 = possible, 4 = likely, 5 = almost certain) and agreement (1 = agree and 5 = disagree) ratings on a 5-point scale.
| 1. How long in hours do you use WeChat each day? | 1 | 5 | 2.2 | 1.2 |
| 2. How many WeChat friends do you have? | 30 | 3,000 | 385.0 | 322.5 |
| 3. How many | 1 | 8 | 3.3 | 1.6 |
| 4.1. Out of every 10 posts you read on WeChat, how many of them do you agree with? | 2.0 | 9.0 | 5.7 | 1.3 |
| 4.2. Out of every 10 posts you read on WeChat, how many of them do you think are meaningful? | 1.0 | 9.0 | 4.4 | 1.7 |
| 4.3. Out of every 10 posts you read on WeChat, how many of them do you trust? | 1.0 | 9.0 | 6.2 | 1.6 |
| 4.4. Out of every 10 posts you read on WeChat, how many of them do you feel passionate about? | 1.0 | 8.0 | 4.5 | 1.6 |
| 5.1. How likely are you to click the | 1.0 | 5.0 | 2.9 | 0.9 |
| 5.2. How likely are you to click the like button to endorse a post you like? | 1.0 | 5.0 | 3.3 | 0.9 |
| 5.3. How likely are you to click the like button to endorse a post you strongly like? | 1.0 | 5.0 | 4.0 | 1.0 |
| 6.1. How likely are you to click the like button to endorse a post you somewhat dislike? | 1.0 | 5.0 | 2.1 | 0.9 |
| 6.2. How likely are you to click the like button to endorse a post you dislike? | 1.0 | 5.0 | 2.3 | 1.1 |
| 6.3. How likely are you to click the like button to endorse a post you strongly dislike? | 1.0 | 5.0 | 2.8 | 1.3 |
| 7.1. When you agree with a post, how likely are you to click the | 1.0 | 5.0 | 4.1 | 0.8 |
| 7.2. When you agree with a post, how likely are you to make a comment? | 1.0 | 5.0 | 3.3 | 1.0 |
| 7.3. When you agree with a post, how likely are you to retweet the post to other WeChat friends? | 1.0 | 5.0 | 2.7 | 1.1 |
| 7.4. When you agree with a post, how likely are you to just keep it to yourself? | 1.0 | 5.0 | 3.2 | 1.0 |
| 8.1. When you disagree with a post, how likely are you to click the | 1.0 | 4.0 | 1.7 | 0.8 |
| 8.2. When you disagree with a post, how likely are you to make a comment? | 1.0 | 4.0 | 2.2 | 1.1 |
| 8.3. When you disagree with a post, how likely are you to retweet the post to other WeChat friends? | 1.0 | 4.0 | 1.8 | 0.9 |
| 8.4. When you disagree with a post, how likely are you to just keep it to yourself? | 1.0 | 5.0 | 3.8 | 1.1 |
| 8.5. When you disagree with a post, how likely are you to block the author of the post? | 1.0 | 5.0 | 2.5 | 1.2 |
| 9. Do you think WeChat should add a | 1 | 5 | 2.3 | 1.1 |