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Scholars often blame the occurrence of aggressive behavior in online discussions on the anonymity of the Internet; however, even on today's less anonymous platforms, such as social networking sites, users write plenty of aggressive comments, which can elicit a whole wave of negative remarks. Drawing on the social identity and deindividuation effects (SIDE) model, this research conducts a laboratory experiment with a 2 (anonymity vs. no anonymity) × 2 (aggressive norm vs. non-aggressive norm) between-subjects design in order to disentangle the effects of anonymity, social group norms, and their interactions on aggressive language use in online comments. Results reveal that participants used more aggressive expressions in their comments when peer comments on a blog included aggressive wording (i.e., the social group norm was aggressive). Anonymity had no direct effect; however, we found a tendency that users' conformity to an aggressive social norm of commenting is stronger in an anonymous environment.

This paper aimed to analyse the potential of new technologies to support volunteer engagement in emergency response. To examine prerequisites for the use of a smartphone‐based application by medically trained volunteers in circumstances in which regular medical resources are exceeded, the influence of volunteering motives and user characteristics were assessed via an online survey. Results demonstrate that value‐oriented individuals evaluated the system more positively and were more willing to participate. Career‐oriented motivation and technical expertise had a partial influence. Different incentives emphasized in the system description did not make any difference, possibly because the overall evaluation was very positive. Among other implications, results point to the relevance of investigating ways to address value‐oriented individuals and to effectively trigger their motivation.

Theoretical approaches as well as empirical results in the area of social capital accumulation on social networking sites suggest that weak ties/bridging versus strong ties/bonding social capital should be distinguished and that while bonding social capital is connected to emotional support, bridging social capital entails the provision of information. Additionally, recent studies imply the notion that weak ties/bridging social capital are gaining increasing importance in today's social media environments. By means of a survey (N = 317) we challenged these presuppositions by assessing the social support functions that are ascribed to three different types of contacts from participants' network (weak, medium, or strong tie). In contrast to theoretical assumptions, we do not find that weak ties are experienced to supply informational support whereas strong ties first and foremost provide emotional support. Instead we find that within social networking sites, strong ties are perceived to provide both emotional and informational support and weak ties are perceived as less important than recent literature assumes.

Research on non-hedonic entertainment suggests the experience of elevation as an important construct leading to beneficial outcomes such as prosocial motivation. This study builds on first findings in this realm by distinguishing between different meaningful media contents. In a 3 × 4 between-subjects online experiment, we varied type of video (beauty of the earth, unity of humankind, portrayals of human kindness, and funny control videos) and context of proliferation (presentation on an unknown video platform or on YouTube with low vs high number of views). Meaningful videos indeed led to greater elevation, more universal orientation, and prosocial motivation—with videos showing human kindness standing out against other forms of meaningful videos. Human kindness videos additionally fostered more positive attitudes toward stereotyped groups—mediated by the feeling of elevation and the subsequent feeling of universal orientation.