Competition and Information Deception in Online Social Networks

User misrepresentation in online social networks: how competition and altruism impact online disclosure behaviours

“…In this paper, we take the position that the influence of reputation benefit perceptions on the intention to misrepresent personal information on OSN is mediated through the social exchange behaviours of competition and altruism. In other words, reputation benefit perceptions represent appraisals that people form in terms of whether a certain behaviour (information misrepresentation) will help achieve some goal with these appraisals then becoming the basis for certain desires (competitive desires and altruistic desires) which in turn manifest as intentions to engage in the behaviour (Bagozzi, Gopinath, and Nyer 1999;Church and Thambusamy 2018). In the context of information misrepresentation on OSN, competition and altruism are intriguing since they are the fundamentally opposite behaviours (Meeker 1971;Cropanzano and Mitchell 2005).…”

“…Competitive desires are defined as the degree to which a user believes that competing against friends represents a likeable, enjoyable, and satisfying experience (Smither and Houston 1992). Research on the influence of competitive desires in a social context has been divided where one stream of researchers (Abel 1990;Higgins 2006;Turel 2015;Jang, Park, and Song 2016) has suggested a negative influence whereas another stream of researchers (Ryan and Deci 2000;Sweetser and Wyeth 2005;Liu, Li, and Santhanam 2013;Church and Thambusamy 2018) has suggested a positive influence.…”

“…Some other researchers have taken a more positive view of competitive desires in a social context (Ryan and Deci 2000;Sweetser and Wyeth 2005;Liu, Li, and Santhanam 2013;Church and Thambusamy 2018). Competition is an essential part of social life (Johnson and Johnson 1989).…”

“…Studies on competition in the online environment have shown that people experienced a heightened enjoyment when put into competitive situations with others online (Sweetser and Wyeth 2005;Liu, Li, and Santhanam 2013). Church and Thambusamy (2018) found appraisal of hedonic benefits to be a significant predictor of the desire for online competition. In this study, we follow the lead of this stream of researchers and consider the influence of competitive desires on OSN in the positive light.…”

“…The third relationship we examine is the one between hedonic benefit perceptions and competitive desires. Studies have shown that a positive relationship exists between perceived enjoyment and competitive desires (Smither and Houston 1992;Liu, Li, and Santhanam 2013;Church and Thambusamy 2018). In the online social networking context, competitive OSN users motivated by hedonic benefit perceptions may feel an increased desire to compete not only by using information such as total number of friends, type of friends, number of likes for a particular post, etc., but also by playing social games such as Angry Birds, Farmville, Candy Crush Saga, etc.…”