User Behaviors, Engagement, and Consequences
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Paper Number
2160
Paper Type
Completed
Description
Individuals spend increasing amounts of time on social networking sites (SNSs), despite them potentially harming their well-being. This is at odds with theories postulating that people strive to engage in hedonically beneficial activities. However, research shows that people frequently mispredict the affective outcomes of future actions, and then base their behavior on such faulty predictions. In this research, we test the hypothesis that people mispredict the hedonic effects of using SNSs and base their usage time on their faulty predictions. In two studies, we demonstrate that people mispredict both the positive and negative affective outcomes of Instagram use. Participants’ forecasted positive affect of Instagram use was too optimistic, while also being related to higher amounts of time spent on the platform. This implies that users overinvest their time in Instagram use. Results further show that negative emotions during Instagram use were overestimated. These predictions were not associated with usage time.
Recommended Citation
Baum, Katharina and Baumann, Annika, "Affective Forecasting Errors in the Context of Social Networking Site Use" (2021). ICIS 2021 Proceedings. 18.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2021/user_behaivors/user_behaivors/18
Affective Forecasting Errors in the Context of Social Networking Site Use
Individuals spend increasing amounts of time on social networking sites (SNSs), despite them potentially harming their well-being. This is at odds with theories postulating that people strive to engage in hedonically beneficial activities. However, research shows that people frequently mispredict the affective outcomes of future actions, and then base their behavior on such faulty predictions. In this research, we test the hypothesis that people mispredict the hedonic effects of using SNSs and base their usage time on their faulty predictions. In two studies, we demonstrate that people mispredict both the positive and negative affective outcomes of Instagram use. Participants’ forecasted positive affect of Instagram use was too optimistic, while also being related to higher amounts of time spent on the platform. This implies that users overinvest their time in Instagram use. Results further show that negative emotions during Instagram use were overestimated. These predictions were not associated with usage time.
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