Determining factors of participants' attitudes toward the ethics of social media data research

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate the participants' attitudes toward the ethical issues caused by collecting social media data (SMD) for research, as well as the effects of familiarity, trust and altruism on the participants' attitudes toward the ethics of SMD research. It is hoped that through this study, scholars will be reminded to respect participants and engage in ethical reflection when using SMD in research.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted social media users as its research subjects and used Sina Microblog, the world's largest Chinese social media platform, as the example. Based on the 320 valid responses collected from a survey, structural equation modeling was employed to examine the research model.FindingsThe results indicated that altruism, familiarity and trust have significant influences on participants' attitudes toward the ethics of SMD research, and familiarity also influences attitudes through the mediating role of trust and altruism.Originality/valueThis study explored the mechanism underlying the relationship between the determining factors and participants' attitudes toward the ethics of SMD research, and the results demonstrated that the informed consent mechanism is an effective way to communicate with participants and that the guiding responsibility of the platform should be improved to standardize SMD research.

Comparative sensitivity of social media data and their acceptable use in research

“… 27 suggest, educating the public about why research is important and why it requires their data is vital to ensuring individuals’ comfort with their data being used. As earlier studies 11 , 24 and now our work show, how much data sharers trust researchers affects their perceptions of acceptable use. People who place more trust in institutions were more likely to accept their data being used.…”

“…For example, a study about UK public health research found that when participants were told that mandating consent could lead to selection bias and adversely impact public health research, participants were more willing to share their data without explicit consent 21 . For both health data 21 – 23 and social media data 11 , 24 , how much participants believe that sharing their data will contribute to a purpose that will benefit society affects how acceptable they find the use of their data.…”

“…For example, studies find that how much people trust institutions–a type of data analyst–affects whether individuals are okay with those institutions using their social media data 8 , 11 , 27 . For both health data 21 – 23 and social media data 11 , 24 , how much people trust researchers in general also affects how acceptable they find their data’s use. Studies find mixed results concerning the effects on demographic characteristics on perceptions of acceptable use.…”

Can social media data be freely used? Participants’ ethical perceptions toward using their social media data in research

“…In fact, as early as 1997, Nissenbaum (1997) proposed that the protection of privacy should not ignore the noninitiate realm. Other studies have confirmed with empirical data that social media users have strong ethical needs, and ethical attitudes will change with changes in researchers' behavior (Chen et al, 2021a). Therefore, the random collection of personal information on public platforms may infringe on users' privacy, lead to a chilling effect and inhibit free expression.…”

Measuring Romanian Students’ Attitude towards the Ethical Use of Social Networks

“…The focus of Sebastião et al's [37] research was to assess public relations practitioners' attitudes towards their professional use of social networks. Chen et al [44] investigated the deter-mining factors of the participants' attitudes towards social network data research ethics. Brady et al [45] have developed a method to measure expressions of moral outrage at the level of texts used on social networks.…”