Purpose

Social media platforms are increasingly used by activists to mobilize collective actions online and offline. Social media often provide visible information about group size through system-generated cues. This study is based on social cognitive theory and examines how visible group size on social media influences individuals' self-efficacy, collective efficacy and intentions to participate in a collective action among groups with no prior collaboration experiences.

Design/methodology/approach

A between-subject online experiment was conducted with a sample of 188 undergraduate participants in a large public university in the United States. Six versions of a Facebook event page with identical contents were created. The study manipulated the group size shown on the event page (control, 102, 302, 502, 702 and 902). Participants were randomly assigned to one of the six conditions and asked to read and assess an event page that calls for a collective action. Then their collective efficacy, self-efficacy and intentions to participate were measured.

Findings

The results showed that the system-aggregated group size was not significantly associated with perceived collective efficacy, but there was a curvilinear relationship between the group size and perceived self-efficacy. Self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between group size and intentions to participate; collective efficacy did not.

Originality/value

The study contributes to social movement theories by moving beyond personal grievance and identity theories to examine how individuals' efficacy beliefs can be affected by the cues that are afforded by social media platforms. The study shows that individuals use system-generated cues about the group size for assessing the perceived self-efficacy and collective efficacy in a group with no prior affiliations. Group size also influenced individual decisions to participate in collective actions through self-efficacy and collective efficacy.

中文翻译：

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多多益善？系统汇总的小组人数信息对用户的效能和参与集体行动的意愿的影响

目的

活动家越来越多地使用社交媒体平台来动员在线和离线的集体行动。社交媒体通常通过系统生成的提示提供有关组规模的可见信息。这项研究基于社会认知理论，研究了社交媒体上可见的群体规模如何影响个人的自我效能，集体效能以及没有事先合作经验的群体之间参与集体行动的意愿。

设计/方法/方法

在美国一所大型公立大学中，对188名本科生进行了样本间在线实验。创建了具有相同内容的Facebook事件页面的六个版本。研究操作了事件页面（控件102、302、502、702和902）上显示的组大小。参与者被随机分配到六个条件之一，并被要求阅读和评估一个需要采取集体行动的活动页面。然后测量他们的集体效能，自我效能和参与意愿。

发现

结果表明，系统汇总的小组规模与感知的集体效能没有显着相关，但是小组规模与感知的自我效能之间存在曲线关系。自我效能感部分地调节了小组规模与参与意愿之间的关系。集体功效没有。

创意/价值

这项研究通过超越个人的不满和身份理论，研究了社交媒体平台提供的线索如何影响个人的效能信念，从而为社会运动理论做出了贡献。研究表明，个人使用系统生成的关于群体规模的线索来评估没有先前隶属关系的群体的自我效能感和集体效能。小组规模还通过自我效能感和集体效能感影响个人参与集体行动的决策。