- The study examined whether priming participants by having them watch a video about social issues would make them more likely to engage in online and offline activism. - Results showed that those who spent more time on social media were more likely to post about causes online, but priming had no effect on willingness to volunteer offline or overall activism. - While priming increased likelihood of online posts for those who saw the hunger video, neither group was more likely to volunteer, suggesting online activity does not necessarily translate to real-world action.

1. –
Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk: Connecting Online
Activity with Offline Activism
Arielle A. Haddad – Woodbury University, Burbank
Results
• 2 x 2 mixed factorial multivariate analysis of variance
(MANOVA) revealed no significance, F (3, 75) = 1.337, p = .269,
Pillai’s Trace = .051
• Significant difference between Conditions (experimental or
control) X Likelihood to post on social media (t83 = -2.806, p = .
006, 95% CI [-1.310, -.223])
• Significant difference between Amount of time spent on social
media (< 2 hours = “low use,” > 2 hours = “high use”) X
Likelihood to post on social media (t79 = 2.913, p = .005, 95% CI
[.253, 1.347])
Hypothesis
Participants in experimental who use social
media more will be more likely to post on
social media about a social/political cause,
go out and volunteer, and will have higher
Total Volunteerism-Activism scores
Method
• Participants: N = 85 (52% male, 46%
female, 2% declined to answer)
• Watch video on world hunger or duct
tape
• Social media campaign or volunteer sign
up sheet
• Complete social media use habits survey
– frequency of social media use,
likelihood of posting about social/
political issues on social media or
likelihood to volunteer
• Bales Volunteerism-Activism Scale – 5-
point Likert scale
Introduction
• Grievances towards a socio-political cause and
cynicism due to the inequality and injustice of an
event are two of the biggest motivators found in
the psychology of protest (van Stekelenburg,
2013)
• People change their minds due to declining
interest during a campaign, feelings of there
being barriers to take action, and growing
indifference by others (Oegema & Klandermans,
1994).
• Social media is a perfect platform for self-report;
limited by how people cultivate their image on
social media and their motivation sharing
information on social media (Park et al., 2014).
• Research has shown that people often are not
aware of the influence of priming events on their
behavior, leading to people being more easily
influenced when it comes to social behavior and
stereotypes (Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996)
References
• Bargh, J. A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait
constructs and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71,
230-244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.71.2.230
• Brewer, M. B. (1991). The social self: On being the same and different at the same time. PSPB, 17,
475-482. doi: 10.1177/0146167291175001
• Oegema, D. & Klandermans, B. (1994). Why social movement sympathizers don't participate:
Erosion and nonconversion of support. American Sociological Review, 58, 703-722.
• Park, G., Schwartz, H. A., Eichstaedt, J. C., Kern, M. L., Kosinski, M., Stillwell, D. J., Ungar, L. H.,
& Seligman, M. E. P. (2014). Automatic personality assessment through social media language.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108, 934-952. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000020
• van Stekelenburg, J. (2013). The political psychology of protest: Sacrificing for a cause. European
Psychologist, 18, 224-234. doi: 10.1027/1016-9040/a000156
Table 2.
Differences in likelihood to post on social media about a social/political cause,
likelihood to volunteer for a social/political cause, and Total Volunteerism-
Activism scores in participants who have low versus high social media use
Observed
Participant
Outcomes
Mean percentage
(SD)
t p 95% CI
Effect size
(Cohen’s d)Low SM
Use
N = 45
High
SM Use
N = 36
Likelihood to post
on social media 3.69 (1.3) 2.89 (1.1) 2.91 .005 [.253, 1.34] .65
Likelihood to
volunteer
3.76 (1.0) 3.31 (1.2) 1.78 .077 [-.051, .951] .39
Total
Volunteerism-
Activism Score
71.0 (5.8) 70.6 (6.8) .288 .774 [-2.39 3.20] .06
Table 1.
Differences in likelihood to post on social media about a social/political cause,
likelihood to volunteer for a social/political cause, and Total Volunteerism-
Activism scores in the experimental versus control group
Observed
Participant
Outcomes
Mean percentage
(SD)
t p 95% CI
Effect
size
(Cohe
n’s d)
Experi.
N = 45
Control
N = 40
Likelihood to post
on social media 2.93 (1.2) 3.70 (1.2) -2.06 .006 [-1.31, -.223] -.61
Likelihood to
volunteer
3.40 (1.2) 3.80 (1.0) -1.60 .112 [-.896, .096] -.32
Total Volunteerism-
Activism Score 71.5 (6.4) 70.4 (6.6) .825 .412 [-1.66, 4.01] .17
Discussion
• Amount of time spent on social media showed
significant differences between the likelihood of
posting about a cause on social media, but made
no significant difference on the likelihood to
volunteer or Total Volunteerism-Activism scores
• Priming did not affect their general attitudes
toward volunteering and activism
• Participants in the experimental group who
watched the UNICEF video about world hunger
were more likely to post on social media than
participants who viewed the video about breaking
out of duct tape, but both groups were unlikely to
go out and volunteer regardless of what video they
were shown
• Limitations
• Sample size: more is better.
• Find more measures in motivation
• Research into social media is limited
due to fast growth
Contact Me
For more information on my thesis project, contact
me at haddadarielle@gmail.com