Facebook: Strong emotional reactions when browsing other people's profiles
The social network Facebook elicits surprisingly strong emotions in its users. Researchers at the University of Missouri School of Journalism have found that Facebook users develop intense feelings of hatred—but also very positive emotions—when they browse through other people’s profiles.
Study leader Kevin Wise and his team have put forward the theory that users either surf "passively social" or browse the profiles of others in a "socially exploitative" manner, reports Cnet according to the press release. By "passive social" surfers, the researchers mean user behavior that is limited to following information from the newsfeed. "Socially exploitative" behaviour is characterized by the decision to actively visit friends' profiles and browse through posts, photos and so on. According to the researchers, the latter surfing behavior generates strong emotions. According to this study, the decision as to which profile to click on is based on fairly simple selection criteria. People either visit the pages of people they love or those of people they hate. According to the researchers, stalking other profiles triggers much stronger feelings than simply reading along in the newsfeed.
The researchers carried out tests with various people in which physical reactions were measured during so-called "profile stalking". The results now at least allow us to speculate as to whether Facebook is now a preferred channel through which people vent their inner emotions.
Psychologists such as Natascha Murashev from the blog Psychology.com are now raising the question of whether Facebook stalking has even become a new way for people to deal with their anger towards friends or acquaintances. It is possible that certain users are actually avoiding a personal confrontation and trying to find "virtual excuses" on Facebook.
The researchers carried out tests with various people in which physical reactions were measured during so-called "profile stalking". The results now at least allow us to speculate as to whether Facebook is now a preferred channel through which people vent their inner emotions.
Psychologists such as Natascha Murashev from the blog Psychology.com are now raising the question of whether Facebook stalking has even become a new way for people to deal with their anger towards friends or acquaintances. It is possible that certain users are actually avoiding a personal confrontation and trying to find "virtual excuses" on Facebook.
