Social media tends to gather users around social cliques consisting of similar-minded individuals and shared identities. These online group processes can have significant influence on user behavior, which is alarming when considering risky behaviors such as gambling. This study examined how online clique involvement predicts young people’s interest in gambling content and following observed group norms on social media. Survey respondents were 15–25-year-olds from Finland (n = 1200), the United States (n = 1212), South Korea (n = 1192) and Spain (n = 1212). A self-reported measure of online clique involvement and a gambling-related social media vignette experiment were utilized. The results show that online clique involvement was related to higher interest in gambling content. Content liked by a majority gathered more interest, indicating conformity to a group norm. This finding was especially true among participants with past involvement in online cliques, and the association was strongest in South Korea. The tendency to participate in online clique behavior creates a potentially risky setting when encountering online gambling content, because it may accentuate the effect of observed group norms. Interacting with gambling content increases the visibility of such content due to algorithmic filtering technologies, which can fuel gambling-related intentions and behaviors, and normalize gambling.

社交媒体倾向于将用户聚集在由志趣相投的个人和共享身份组成的社交集团周围。这些在线小组流程可能会对用户的行为产生重大影响，当考虑赌博等危险行为时，这一警报令人震惊。这项研究调查了在线集团的参与如何预测年轻人对赌博内容的兴趣，并遵循社交媒体上观察到的群体规范。受访者分别是来自芬兰（n  = 1200），美国（n  = 1212），韩国（n  = 1192）和西班牙（n = 1212）。利用自我报告的在线集团参与程度和与赌博相关的社交媒体小插图实验。结果表明，在线集团的参与与对赌博内容的更高兴趣有关。多数人喜欢的内容引起了更多兴趣，表明符合群体规范。在过去参与过在线集团的参与者中，这一发现尤为真实，并且该协会在韩国最为强大。参与在线集团行为的趋势在遇到在线赌博内容时会产生潜在的风险，因为这可能会加剧观察到的群体规范的影响。由于算法过滤技术可与赌博内容互动，从而提高了此类内容的可见度，从而助长了与赌博相关的意图和行为，