Concerns
about the effects of social media or social networking site(SNS) use
on prosocial development are increasing. The aim of the current study is to
meta-analytically summarize the research to date (k = 5) about the relationship between general SNS use and two components
of empathy (i.e., empathic concern and
perspective-taking). Random effects meta-analyses showed that SNS use
was significantly and positively related to affective empathy though only
marginally related to cognitive empathy. These effects were generally small in
size and do not establish causality. Future research should explore how
specific behaviors are related to different forms of empathy.
References
[1]
Davis, M. (1994) Empathy: A Social Psychological Approach. Wm. C. Brown Communications, Inc., Dubuque.
[2]
de Waal, F.B. (2010) The Evolution of Empathy. In: Keltner, D., Marsh, J. and Smith, J.A., Eds., The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, 16-25.
[3]
Masten, C.L., Morelli, S.A. and Eisenberger, N.I. (2011) An fMRI Investigation of Empathy for “Social Pain” and Subsequent Prosocial Behavior. Neuroimage, 55, 381-388. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.11.060
[4]
Allemand, M., Steiger, A.E. and Fend, H.A. (2015) Empathy Development in Adolescence Predicts Social Competencies in Adulthood. Journal of Personality, 83, 229-241. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12098
[5]
Eisenberg, N. and Miller, P.A. (1987) The Relation of Empathy to Prosocial and Related Behaviors. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 91. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.101.1.91
[6]
Twenge, J.M. (2013) The Evidence for Generation Me and against Generation We. Emerging Adulthood, 1, 11-16. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167696812466548
[7]
Bach, R.A., Defever, A.M., Chopik, W.J. and Konrath, S.H. (2017) Geographic Variation in Empathy: A State-Level Analysis. Journal of Research in Personality, 68, 124-130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2016.12.007
[8]
Chopik, W.J., O’Brien, E. and Konrath, S.H. (2017) Differences in Empathic Concern and Perspective Taking across 63 Countries. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 48, 23-38. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022116673910
[9]
Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1. On the Horizon, 9, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120110424816
[10]
Subrahmanyam, K. and Smahel, D. (2010) Digital Youth: The Role of Media in Development. Springer Science & Business Media, Bloomington.
[11]
Valkenburg, P.M. (2017) Understanding Self-Effects in Social Media. Human Communication Research, 43, 477-490. https://doi.org/10.1111/hcre.12113
[12]
Boyd, D.M. and Ellison, N.B. (2007) Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 210-230. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x
[13]
Konrath, S. (2012) The Empathy Paradox: Increasing Disconnection in the Age of Increasing Connection. In: Luppicini, R., Ed., Handbook of Research on Technoself: Identify in a Technological Society, IGI Global, Hershey, 204-228.
[14]
Konrath, S.H., O’Brien, E.H. and Hsing, C. (2011) Changes in Dispositional Empathy in American College Students over Time: A Meta-Analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15, 180-198. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868310377395
[15]
Gentile, B., Twenge, J.M. and Campbell, W.K. (2010) Birth Cohort Differences in Self-Esteem, 1988-2008: A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis. Review of General Psychology, 14, 261. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019919
[16]
Twenge, J.M. and Campbell, W.K. (2008) Increases in Positive Self-Views among High School Students: Birth-Cohort Changes in Anticipated Performance, Self-Satisfaction, Self-Liking, and Self-Competence. Psychological Science, 19, 1082-1086. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02204.x
[17]
Twenge, J.M. and Foster, J.D. (2010) Birth Cohort Increases in Narcissistic Personality Traits among American College Students, 1982-2009. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1, 99-106. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550609355719
[18]
Twenge, J.M., Konrath, S., Foster, J.D., Keith Campbell, W. and Bushman, B.J. (2008) Egos Inflating over Time: A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality, 76, 875-902. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00507.x
[19]
Arnett, J.J. (2013) The Evidence for Generation We and against Generation Me. Emerging Adulthood, 1, 5-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167696812466842
[20]
Alloway, T., Runac, R., Qureshi, M. and Kemp, G. (2014) Is Facebook Linked to Selfishness? Investigating the Relationships among Social Media Use, Empathy, and Narcissism. Social Networking, 3, 150. https://doi.org/10.4236/sn.2014.33020
[21]
Errasti, J., Amigo, I. and Villadangos, M. (2017) Emotional Uses of Facebook and Twitter: Its Relation with Empathy, Narcissism, and Self-Esteem in Adolescence. Psychological Reports, 120, 997-1018. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033294117713496
[22]
Valkenburg, P.M. and Peter, J. (2011) Online Communication among Adolescents: An Integrated Model of Its Attraction, Opportunities, and Risks. Journal of Adolescent Health, 48, 121-127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2010.08.020
[23]
Uhls, Y.T. and Greenfield, P.M. (2011) The Rise of Fame: An Historical Content Analysis. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 5, Article 1.
[24]
Uhls, Y.T., Zgourou, E. and Greenfield, P.M. (2014) 21st Century Media, Fame, and Other Future Aspirations: A National Survey of 9 - 15 Year Olds. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 8, Article 5. https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2014-4-5
[25]
Coyne, S.M., Padilla-Walker, L.M., Holmgren, H.G., Davis, E.J., Collier, K.M., Memmott-Elison, M.K. and Hawkins, A.J. (2018) A Meta-Analysis of Prosocial Media on Prosocial Behavior, Aggression, and Empathic Concern: A Multidimensional Approach. Developmental Psychology, 54, 331. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000412
[26]
Liu, D. and Baumeister, R.F. (2016) Social Networking Online and Personality of Self-Worth: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Research in Personality, 64, 79-89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2016.06.024
[27]
Song, H., Zmyslinski-Seelig, A., Kim, J., Drent, A., Victor, A., Omori, K. and Allen, M. (2014) Does Facebook Make You Lonely? A Meta Analysis. Computers in Human Behavior, 36, 446-452. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.04.011
[28]
James, C., Davis, K., Charmaraman, L., Konrath, S., Slovak, P., Weinstein, E. and Yarosh, L. (2017) Digital Life and Youth Well-Being, Social Connectedness, Empathy, and Narcissism. Pediatrics, 140, S71-S75. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-1758F
[29]
Reich, S.M. (2017) Connecting Offline Social Competence to Online Peer Interactions. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 6, 291. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000111
[30]
Davis, M.H. (1983) Measuring Individual Differences in Empathy: Evidence for a Multidimensional Approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 113. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.44.1.113
[31]
Vossen, H.G., Piotrowski, J.T. and Valkenburg, P.M. (2015) Development of the Adolescent Measure of Empathy and Sympathy (AMES). Personality and Individual Differences, 74, 66-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.09.040
[32]
Jolliffe, D. and Farrington, D.P. (2006) Development and Validation of the Basic Empathy Scale. Journal of Adolescence, 29, 589-611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2005.08.010
[33]
Reniers, R.L., Corcoran, R., Drake, R., Shryane, N.M. and Völlm, B.A. (2011) The QCAE: A Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy. Journal of Personality Assessment, 93, 84-95. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2010.528484
[34]
Carrier, L.M., Spradlin, A., Bunce, J.P. and Rosen, L.D. (2015) Virtual Empathy: Positive and Negative Impacts of Going Online upon Empathy in Young Adults. Computers in Human Behavior, 52, 39-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.05.026
[35]
Chadwick, S. and Ralston, E. (2010) Perspective-Taking in Structured and Unstructured Online Discussions. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 22, 1-11.
[36]
Ang, R.P. and Goh, D.H. (2010) Cyberbullying among Adolescents: The Role of Affective and Cognitive Empathy, and Gender. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 41, 387-397. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-010-0176-3
[37]
Hong, S. and Na, J. (2018) How Facebook Is Perceived and Used by People across Cultures: The Implications of Cultural Differences in the Use of Facebook. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9, 435-443. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617711227
[38]
Powell, P.A. and Roberts, J. (2017) Situational Determinants of Cognitive, Affective, and Compassionate Empathy in Naturalistic Digital Interactions. Computers in Human Behavior, 68, 137-148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.024
[39]
Lorah, J. (2018) Effect Size Measures for Multilevel Models: Definition, Interpretation, and TIMSS Example. Large-Scale Assessments in Education, 6, 8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40536-018-0061-2
[40]
Peterson, R.A. and Brown, S.P. (2005) On the Use of Beta Coefficients in Meta-Analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 175. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.1.175
[41]
Borenstein, M., Hedges, L.V., Higgins, J.P. and Rothstein, H.R. (2009) Introduction to Meta-Analysis. John Wiley & Sons, West Sussex. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470743386
[42]
Vossen, H.G. and Valkenburg, P.M. (2016) Do Social Media Foster or Curtail Adolescents’ Empathy? A Longitudinal Study. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 118-124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.040
[43]
Greenfield, P.M. (2009) Linking Social Change and Developmental Change: Shifting Pathways of Human Development. Developmental Psychology, 45, 401. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014726
[44]
Singh, N., Zhao, H. and Hu, X. (2005) Analyzing the Cultural Content of Web Sites: A Cross-National Comparison of China, India, Japan, and US. International Marketing Review, 22, 129-146. https://doi.org/10.1108/02651330510593241
[45]
Boz, N. and Guan, S.S.A. (2017) “Your Profile Is So Rad”: Self-Presentation Strategies in Turkish Adolescents. The European Journal of Communication Research, 42, 23-46.
[46]
Chen, W. (2010) Internet-Usage Patterns of Immigrants in the Process of Intercultural Adaptation. Cyberpsychology: Behavior, and Social Networking, 13, 387-399. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2009.0249
[47]
Jackson, L.A. and Wang, J.L. (2013) Cultural Dif0000ferences in Social Networking Site Use: A Comparative Study of China and the United States. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 910-921. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.11.024
[48]
Na, J., Kosinski, M. and Stillwell, D.J. (2015) When a New Tool Is Introduced in Different Cultural Contexts: Individualism-Collectivism and Social Network on Facebook. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 46, 355-370. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022114563932
[49]
Mazur, E. and Li, Y. (2016) Identity and Self-Presentation on Social Networking Web Sites: A Comparison of Online Profiles of Chinese and American Emerging Adults. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 5, 101. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000054
[50]
Qiu, L., Lin, H. and Leung, A.K.Y. (2013) Cultural Differences and Switching of In-Group Sharing Behavior between an American (Facebook) and a Chinese (Renren) Social Networking Site. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44, 106-121. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022111434597
[51]
Xu, J., Yang, T., Cong, T. and Zeng, Y. (2015) Use of Social Networking Sites among Chinese and American Researchers: A Comparative Study. Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 47, 60-76. https://doi.org/10.3138/jsp.47.1.03
[52]
Xu, Y. and Zhang, W. (2017) New Media’s Impact on China from a Culture Perspective. In: New Media and Chinese Society, Springer, Singapore, 95-119. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6710-5_6
[53]
Meyrowitz, J. (1986) No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior. Oxford University Press, New York.
[54]
Chan, M. (2014) Multimodal Connectedness and Quality of Life: Examining the Influences of Technology Adoption and Interpersonal Communication on Well-Being across the Life Span. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 20, 3-18. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12089
