Social influence on the Net : a mindset approach

Social media afford a context within which users interact with other users. Recognizing variations in contexts afforded by social media, the current study classified social media into two types, i.e., relational media, which allow users to build individual social connections, and categorical media, which support group-based connections. Effects of relational and categorical media were examined, employing a mindset approach as a theoretical framework. The mindset approach manifests the situated nature of cognition, emphasizing individuals’ tendency to harness immediate contexts in meaning-making processing. Based on this postulation, the current study proposed that social media induced distinctive mindsets, entailing self-concept, goal-orientation, and concrete-abstract level in perceiving others.The current study also examined effects of social media on users’ group identification and belief change. Based on previous literature on social identity, it is proposed that distinctive mechanisms determine group identification in relational and categorical media. For relational media users, perception of individual relations to other users was expected to mediate the effect of relational media on group identification. In contrast, for categorical media users, perception of being a member of a group and perception of a homogeneous group were expected to mediate the effect of categorical media on group identification. Furthermore, based on the automatic social influence literature, the present study proposed that relational and categorical media, compared to non-social media, induce greater belief changes, and the belief changes are mediated by group identification. The predictions were tested using an online experiment (N = 705), in which participants used a mock-up social media, in which they formed social connections of either relational or categorical type, or used it without building social connection. Participants read others’ posts and comments revealing their opinions on health-related issues. Participants’ mindset, social perception, group identification, and belief changes were assessed. Results revealed that using social media influenced participants’ mindset: The relational group reported greater in-group self-concept and considered in-group goals more important, and used less concrete terms when describing their group members. Also, the categorical group considered in-group goals more important. Furthermore, using social media influenced group identification: The relational and categorical group reported greater group identification than the control group. Yet, the relative contributions of predictors of group identification differed across the conditions. For the relational media, relational perception was a dominant determinant of group identification and homogeneity perception was the least influential. For the categorical group, homogeneity perception was a predictor as significant as others. Lastly, effects of social media use on belief changes was not different across the social media type.The current study contributes to our understanding of how social media influence users by employing a novel theoretical framework, mindset approach, in examining subtle differences generated by social media. The mindset approach enables us to find nuanced effects: Different types of social media afford distinctive mindsets and psychological mechanisms for group identification.