Matthew S. Eastin

Understanding Internet usage: a social-cognitive approach to uses and gratifications

Several studies have applied uses and gratifications to explain Internet usage. Like Bandura’s social-cognitive theory, the uses and gratifications framework explains media use in terms of expected positive outcomes, or gratifications. However, previous uses and gratifications research accounted for little variance in Internet behavior, although there were conflicting results. This research identifies new variables from social-cognitive theory that might further explain Internet usage and resolve inconsistencies in prior research. Measures of self-efficacy and self-disparagement were developed for the domain of Internet behavior. Internet addiction was interpreted as a deficient self-regulation within the social-cognitive framework. Finally, the negative outcomes of online behavior were analyzed for their impact on Internet usage. In a survey of 171 college students, the social-cognitive model explained 60% of the available variance in Internet usage using multiple regression analysis, a significant improvement over prior uses and gratifications research.

Diffusion of e-commerce: an analysis of the adoption of four e-commerce activities

The Internet has the ability to function as a business medium. Over one-third of US residents use the Internet, and nearly 40% use it as a medium of business (electronic-commerce). As this percentage continues to grow, so does the need to understand why and how users choose to adopt. This information will afford researchers and e-commerce providers a better understanding of how to facilitate future adoption. Through the diffusion of innovations model, this study revisits traditional and current concepts of adoption by investigating the adoption of four e-commerce activities currently available to Internet users: (1) online shopping, (2) online banking, (3) online investing, and (4) electronic payment for an Internet service (i.e., access to exclusive sites). Results indicate that six attributes common to the diffusion model (i.e., perceived convenience and financial benefits, risk, previous use of the telephone for a similar purpose, self-efficacy, and Internet use) all play a significant role in the adoption processes. Results also indicate that when users decide to adopt one of these activities they tend to adopt another. Finally, a discussion explores how to extend the model identified in this study by assessing possible negative outcomes of diffusion.

Exploring Consumer Motivations for Creating User-Generated Content

ABSTRACT The advent of Web 2.0 technologies has enabled the efficient creation and distribution of user-generated content (UGC), resulting in vast changes in the online media landscape. For instance, the proliferation of UGC has made a strong impact on consumers, media suppliers, and marketing professionals while necessitating research in order to understand both the short and long-term implications of this media content. This exploratory study (n = 325) seeks to investigate consumer consumption and creation of UGC and the attitudinal factors that contribute to these actions. The data confirm the established relationship between attitude and behavior and indicate attitude serves as a mediating factor between the use and creation of UGC. With regard to the creation of UGC, the ego-defensive and social functions of attitude were found to have the most explanatory power.

Portrayals of Overweight and Obese Individuals on Commercial Television

OBJECTIVES This study examined the distribution and individual characteristics of body types on prime-time television. METHODS Five episodes of each of the 10 top-rated prime-time fictional programs on 6 broadcast networks during the 1999-2000 season were quantitatively analyzed. RESULTS Of 1018 major television characters, 14% of females and 24% of males were overweight or obese, less than half their percentages in the general population. Overweight and obese females were less likely to be considered attractive, to interact with romantic partners, or to display physical affection. Overweight and obese males were less likely to interact with romantic partners and friends or to talk about dating and were more likely to be shown eating. CONCLUSIONS Overweight and obese television characters are associated with specific negative characteristics.

Credibility Assessments of Online Health Information: the Effects of Source Expertise and Knowledge of Content

Millions of Americans use the Internet as a resource for information, with a large proportion seeking health information. Research indicates that medical professionals do not author an extensive amount of health information available on the Internet. This creates a possibility for false information, thereby potentially leading ill people away from proper care. One way to begin addressing this problem is to assess perceptions of credibility about information found online. A between-groups, 2 (message type) × 3 (source type) factorial design was tested by manipulating source expertise (high, medium, low) and content knowledge (known and unknown). While findings did not indicate a significant interaction between source and content type, they did indicate an overall tendency to rate all information as relatively credible. In addition, results indicate that both knowledge of content and source expertise affect perceptions of online health information.

Is Online Buying out of Control? Electronic Commerce and Consumer Self-Regulation

Preliminary evidence suggests that forms of unregulated consumer behavior, including impulsive, compulsive, and addictive buying, are present on the Internet. This study reconceptualized unregulated buying behaviors as the result of deficient self-regulation using mechanisms proposed in social cognitive theory. As a result, deficient self-regulation of online buying was positively related to online shopping activity. It was a more important predictor than the rational merits of e-commerce, such as convenience and low price, and than personal and economic consumer characteristics. Together with Internet self-efficacy and Internet use, these variables explained 43% of the variance in online shopping behavior.

Alt.support: modeling social support online

While there is mounting evidence that people use the Internet to expand their social networks and receive social support, little is known about how they do so and with what effect the Internet has on overall levels of social support. Based on a survey of 213 online support seekers, this study explored social cognitive mechanism such as self-efficacy and outcome expectations as predictors of support activity, online support reliance and support network size. From these relationships, we offer preliminary evidence suggesting that those who actively seek social support online are indeed finding it through a complex support system beginning with self-regulation.

Beyond the Shooter Game: Examining Presence and Hostile Outcomes Among Male Game Players

Investigating male game players, this study explores how game interface (virtual reality [VR] and standard console), game content (fighting, shooting, and driving), and game context (human and computer competition) influence levels of presence and hostile expectation bias—the expectation others will think, feel, speak, and act aggressively during social conflict. In addition to game interface and game content influencing hostile expectations, significant interactions were detected for hostile expectations. Presence, although not as predicted, also significantly differed across game interface and game content. Through the development and testing of each gaming experience, this study demonstrates that simply testing violent and nonviolent game situations underestimates the complexity of contemporary video-game play.

Worried and wired: effects of health anxiety on information-seeking and health care utilization behaviors.

Although online health information-seeking has been widely studied and findings suggest a variety of motivations behind an individuals health information-seeking behavior, little is known about how this information influences health utilization behaviors. Thus, the current study investigates the relationship between online health information seeking and health care utilization such as visiting a doctor. Additionally, this project expands the literature by examining the moderating role of health anxiety. Results suggest that an individuals level of health anxiety moderates the relationship between online health information seeking and health care utilization decisions.

Television's Role in the Culture of Violence Toward Women: A Study of Television Viewing and the Cultivation of Rape Myth Acceptance in the United States

This study approached cultivation from a feminist, ecological perspective that recognized television at the macrosystem level as a purveyor of cultural norms embedded in a culture of violence towards women. The results suggest that general television consumption is related significantly to first- and second-order rape myth beliefs among men and women. Data also indicate positive relationships between soap opera viewing and both rape myth acceptance (second order beliefs) and the overestimation of false rape accusations (a first order belief), and a negative relationship between crime-show viewing and rape myth acceptance. Gender was a significant predictor of rape beliefs above and beyond the contributions of television viewing and other individual- and micro-level variables.