Friends Without Benefits? The Effects of Message Valence on the Willingness to Respond to SNS Status Updates

• In Event: Online Media I: Analyses of Communication Processes

Abstract

The present study aims at exploring the communicative norms and expectations in Social Network Sites (SNSs). We argue that a “positivity bias” in SNS communication can restrict the availability of public social support via public responses to status updates. Our data derived in an online experiment (N=870) show that users are significantly less willing to respond to a negative status update with a public comment than to a positive status update. In contrast, users show a higher willingness to react to a negative status update with a private message than to a positive status update. These effects were moderated by the strength of the relationship between the sender and receiver of the status update and mediated by perceived message appropriateness and perceived need for social support. The results suggest that SNS users tend to canalize supportive reactions to negative experience of their SNS friends through private modes of communication.

Authors

• Leonard Reinecke, U of Mainz

• Marc Ziegele, U of Mainz