Are people more likely to become more politically active through social media when they observe that their friends are active? Previous research has shown that an individual's likelihood of engaging politically is influenced by observations of how friends act through social media, but relatively little is known about how such social influence through social media interacts with personality features. We argue that individuals with high belongingness needs will engage in political activity if they believe that this is expected from the social groups they belong to. To evaluate this hypothesis, a survey experiment was designed (n = 289) in Qualtrics. We had two experimental conditions (friends or extended network) in which we informed participants that the most shared or “liked” online material among their friends or extended network on Facebook was a specific petition. In a control condition, they were informed that they were shown a random petition. To increase the credibility of the manipulation, we asked participants to log into a fictive app that supposedly downloaded their Facebook data. We show that individuals are more likely to engage politically if they observe that their friends have been politically active on Facebook, but only if they have high belongingness needs.

中文翻译：

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社交网络：朋友的在线行为和归属感需求如何影响政治活动

当人们观察到他们的朋友很活跃时，他们是否更有可能通过社交媒体在政治上变得更加活跃？以前的研究表明，个人参与政治的可能性受到对朋友如何通过社交媒体的观察的影响，但对社交媒体的这种社会影响如何与人格特征相互作用知之甚少。我们认为，如果具有高度归属感需求的个人相信他们所属的社会群体会参与政治活动，他们就会参与政治活动。为了评估这个假设，设计了一个调查实验（n = 289) 在 Qualtrics 中。我们有两个实验条件（朋友或扩展网络），其中我们告知参与者他们的朋友或 Facebook 扩展网络中分享或“喜欢”最多的在线材料是特定的请愿书。在控制条件下，他们被告知他们会收到一份随机请愿书。为了提高操纵的可信度，我们要求参与者登录一个虚构的应用程序，该应用程序据称下载了他们的 Facebook 数据。我们表明，如果个人观察到他们的朋友在 Facebook 上参与政治活动，他们更有可能参与政治活动，但前提是他们有很高的归属感需求。