Is exposure to online content depicting risky behavior related to viewers’ own risky behavior offline?

Branley, Dawn Beverley; Covey, Judith

doi:10.1016/j.chb.2017.05.023

Is exposure to online content depicting risky behavior related to viewers’ own risky behavior offline?

Branley, Dawn Beverley; Covey, Judith

Authors

Dawn Beverley Branley

Professor Judith Covey j.a.covey@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

There are public and governmental concerns that social media may encourage risky behavior in the offline environment. Using international survey data from 412 young adults aged between 18-25 years of age (M = 21.20 years, SD = 2.31 years), this study demonstrates that there is a relationship between exposure to online content depicting risky behavior and users’ own offline risky behavior. This relationship was found for six behaviors: drug use, excessive alcohol use, disordered eating, self-harm, violence to others, and dangerous pranks. A borderline effect was found for two further behaviors: unprotected sex and sex with a stranger. The relationship between content depicting disordered eating and offline behavior was only significant for females; suggesting that female users may be more vulnerable to effects of viewing content depicting disordered eating habits, and/or use social media content to find material related to their existing behavior. No other gender moderation effects were found. The findings provide preliminary evidence that social media use may influence offline risky behavior in young adults.

Citation

Branley, D. B., & Covey, J. (2017). Is exposure to online content depicting risky behavior related to viewers’ own risky behavior offline?. Computers in Human Behavior, 75, 283-287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.05.023

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	May 15, 2017
Online Publication Date	May 17, 2017
Publication Date	May 17, 2017
Deposit Date	May 17, 2017
Publicly Available Date	May 18, 2017
Journal	Computers in Human Behavior
Print ISSN	0747-5632
Publisher	Elsevier
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	75
Pages	283-287
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.05.023

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