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Click to act? the (de) mobilizing effect of expressive low-threshold online collective actions :motivational underpinnings and contextual boundaries

Previous research highlighted that Internet use, in particular online information<p>retrieval and discussions, can facilitate offline collective actions (Boulianne, 2009).<p>Recently, however, the Internet also has been criticized for encouraging low-cost and lowrisk<p>online collective actions—slacktivism—that may have detrimental consequences for<p>groups that aim to achieve a collective purpose (Gladwell, 2010). More precisely, it is<p>argued that actions such as “liking” Facebook pages or posting ingroup-endorsing<p>comments online make users instantly feel good, satisfy their need to act, and derail<p>participation in offline collective actions (Lee & Hsieh, 2013; Morozov, 2009).<p>In my thesis, I assessed this postulation as well as the underlying processes and<p>boundary conditions of the relationship between so-called slacktivist actions and offline<p>collective actions. After introducing a conceptualization of slacktivism as expressive lowthreshold<p>online collective actions, I investigated its influence on offline engagement<p>(Study 1, N = 634; Study 2, N = 76; Study 3, N = 63; Study 4, N = 48). Results indicated that<p>expressive low-threshold online collective actions reduce the willingness to join offline<p>collective actions. This effect was mediated by the satisfaction of group-enhancing<p>motives; members considered the online actions as a substantial contribution to the<p>group's success. The demobilizing impact of expressive low-threshold online collective<p>actions was qualified when members took the online actions in the co-presence of the<p>ingroup, all parties being mutually identifiable (Study 5a, N = 84; Study 5b, N = 99). In this<p>context, obligatory interdependencies between members were enhanced and fostered a<p>spill-over from online to offline collective actions (Study 6, N = 62). / Doctorat en Sciences Psychologiques et de l'éducation / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ulb.ac.be/oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/209182
Date12 June 2014
CreatorsSchumann, Sandy
ContributorsDouglas, Karen, Klein, Olivier, Azzi, Assaad Elia, Van der Linden, Nicolas, Domingo, David, Spears, Russell
PublisherUniversite Libre de Bruxelles, Université libre de Bruxelles, Faculté des Sciences psychologiques et de l'éducation, Bruxelles
Source SetsUniversité libre de Bruxelles
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, info:ulb-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, info:ulb-repo/semantics/openurl/vlink-dissertation
FormatNo full-text files

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