Abstract
The present study examined predictors, moderators, and effects of health slacktivism, which is characterized as individuals’ effortless acts in supporting health causes primarily through Internet and social media. Findings revealed that issue-involvement and self-presentation were two underlying predictors of slacktivism. Specifically, ingratiation self-presentation was found to be a significant predictor of slacktivism among slacktivists, while enhancement self-presentation predicted slacktivism among activists. Results imply that strategic impression-management types were associated with health slacktivism among particular sub-groups. It is also found that health slacktivists and activists differed by relational connection. Slacktivists tended to be people who were remotely related to the health issue advocated, while activists were people who had closer relational connection to the health issue. Health consciousness, however, was not a significant predictor of slacktivism nor a differentiating factor between slacktivists and activists. Consistent with the Transtheoretical Model, slacktivism was found to have positive effects among participants in terms of awareness, psychological wellbeing, behavioral intention and behavior adoption. Individuals’ low-threshold engagement as slacktivism also predicted their high-threshold engagement (activism), implying that getting involved in slacktivism does not substitute for offline forms of participation but may increase the possibility of offline engagement instead.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
References
Rotman, et al.: From slacktivism to activism. Participatory culture in the age of social media. In: Proceedings from CHI EA 2011: The 2011 Annual Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Canada, Vancouver (2011)
Middaugh, E.: Service & Activism in the Digital Age: Supporting Youth Engagement in Public Life. DML Central Working Papers (2012)
Gladwell, M.: Small change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted, New Yorker (October 4, 2010), http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell (retrieved April 3, 2013)
Davis, J.: Cause marketing: Moving beyond corporate slacktivism (November 22, 2011), http://evidencebasedmarketing.net/cause-marketing-moving-beyond-corporate-slacktivism (retrieved April 2, 2013)
Whipple, T.: The rise of slacktivism. The Times (February 9, 2011), http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/850108467 (retrieved April 3, 2013)
Shirky, C.: The Political Power of Social Media. Foreign Affairs 90(1), 28–41 (2011)
Kain, E.: Time ‘Person’ of the year prediction: The slacktivist. Forbes (April 3, 2012), http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/04/03/2012-time-person-of-the-year-prediction-the-slacktivist/ (retrieved April 15, 2013)
Slacktivism: Know Your Meme (n.d.), http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/slacktivism (retrieved April 16, 2012)
McCofferty, D.: Activism vs. Slacktivism. Communications of the ACM 54(12), 17–19 (2011)
Bailyn, E.: The Difference between slacktivism and activism: How ‘Kony 2012’ is narrowing the gap. Huffington Post (March 29, 2012), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evan-bailyn/kony-2012-activism_b_1361791.html (retrieved April 20, 2013)
Saxton, G.D., Wang, L.: The social network effect: The determinants of giving through social media. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 1–35 (2013)
Ellison, N., Heino, R., Gibbs, J.: Managing impressions online: Self-presentation processes in the online dating environment. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 11(2), article 2 (2006), http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue2/ellison.html (retrieved April 2, 2013)
Birnbaum, M.G.: Taking Goffman on a Tour of Facebook: College students and the presentation of self in a mediated digital environment. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A 69 (2008)
Goffman, E.: The presentation of self in everyday life. Doubleday, New York (1959)
Leary, M.R., Kowalski, R.M.: Impression Management: A literature Review and Two-factor Model. Psychological Bulletin 107, 34–47 (1990)
Lee, S.J., et al.: Development of a Self-presentation Tactics Scale. Personality and Individual Differences 26(4), 701–722 (1999)
Wang, K.W.: Faces on Facebook: A study of self-presentation and social support on Facebook. SS Student E-Journal 1, 184–214 (2012)
Hansen, D., Schneiderman, B., Smith, M.A.: Analyzing social media networks with NodeXL: Insights from a connected world. Morgan Kaufmann (2011)
Jones, E.E., Pittman, T.S.: Toward a general theory of strategic self-presentation. In: Suls, J. (ed.) Psychological Perspectives on the Self. Erlbaum, Hillsdale (1982)
Iversen, A.C., Kraft, P.: Does socio-economic status and health consciousness influence how women respond to health related messages in media? Health Education Research 21(5), 601–610 (2006)
Kraft, F.B., Goodell, P.W.: Identifying the health conscious consumer. Journal of Health Care Marketing 13(3), 18–25 (1993)
Becker, M.H., Maiman, L.A., Kirscht, J.P., Haefner, D.P., Drachman, R.H.: The health belief model and prediction of dietary compliance: a field experiment. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour 18, 348–366 (1977)
Michaelidou, N., Hassan, L.M.: The role of health consciousness, food safety concern and ethical identity on attitudes and intentions towards organic food. International Journal of Consumer Studies 32(1), 163–170 (2008)
Hu, C.W.: A New Measure for Health Consciousness: Development of A Health Consciousness Conceptual Model. Unpublished paper presented at National Communication Association 99th Annual Convention, Washington, D.C. (November 2013)
DiClemente, C.C., Prochaska, J.O.: Self-change and therapy change of smoking behavior: A comparison of processes of change in cessation and maintenance. Addictive Behaviors 7, 133–142 (1982)
Prochaska, J.O., DiClemente, C.C.: Stages and processes of self-change of smoking: Toward an integrative model of change. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 51(3), 390–395 (1983)
DiClemente, C.C.: The Transtheoretical Model of intentional behaviour change. Drugs and Alcohol Today 7(1), 29–33 (2007)
Prochaska, J.O., Redding, C.A., Evers, K.E.: The transtheoretical model and stages of change. In: Glanz, K., Rimer, B.K., Viswanath, K. (eds.) Health Behavior and Health Education: Theory, Research, and Practice, pp. 97–102. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco (2008)
Prochaska, J.O.: Decision making in the Transtheoretical Model of behavioral change. Medical Decision Making 28, 845–849 (2008)
Neiger, et al.: Use of Social Media in Health Promotion: Purposes, Key Performance Indicators, and Evaluation Metrics. Health Promotion Practice 13, 159–164 (2012)
Gould, S.J.: Consumer attitudes toward health and health care: A differential perspective. The Journal of Consumer Affairs 22(1), 96–118 (1988)
Christensen, H.S.: Political activities on the Internet: Slacktivism or political participation by other means? First Monday (2011), http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3336/2767 (retrieved April 21, 2013)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Hu, CW. (2014). Health Slacktivism on Social Media: Predictors and Effects. In: Meiselwitz, G. (eds) Social Computing and Social Media. SCSM 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8531. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07632-4_34
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07632-4_34
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-07631-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-07632-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)