Publication
Title
'Can I afford to help?' How affordances of communication modalities guide bystanders' helping intentions towards harassment on social network sites
Author
Abstract
When bystanders want to help victims of harassment on social network sites, they can be guided by the affordances of different communication modalities in order to make a communicative choice. Elaborating on the data of a previous experimental study with 453 adolescents, we compared bystanders' behavioural intentions to help the victim according to their 'mediacy' (via communication technologies (CT) or face-to-face) and their 'privacy' (in public or in private). Furthermore, we investigated whether the context of the harassing incident (incident severity, identity and behaviour of other bystanders) influenced the 'mediacy' and 'privacy' of bystanders' helping intentions. The results showed that in general bystanders had higher behavioural intentions to help the victim in private (vs. in public) and via CT (vs. face-to-face). While incident severity influenced the 'mediacy' of bystanders' helping intentions, the identity and behaviour of other bystanders affected the 'privacy' of their helping intentions.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Behaviour and information technology. - London
Publication
London : 2015
ISSN
0144-929X
DOI
10.1080/0144929X.2014.983979
Volume/pages
34 :4 (2015) , p. 425-435
ISI
000350300100009
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 08.05.2015
Last edited 09.10.2023
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