Keep Logging In! Experimental Evidence Showing the Relation of Affiliation Needs to the Idea of Online Social Networking

Abstract

As social networking sites (SNS) increasingly provide social connections that meet the need for affiliation, people are developing symbiotic relationships with these sites. Drawing on the notion that people motivated by affiliation may increase their attention to sources that provide social connections, we conducted a lab experiment to explore whether priming affiliation needs would prompt the idea of online social networking. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three between-subjects conditions (affiliation arousal, social exclusion, control) in which we employed the scrambled-sentence paradigm to manipulate affiliation motivations. Each experimental condition was followed by a modified Stroop task (a color naming task) to test reaction times to SNS and non-SNS terms (including general terms and brand names). People who were primed to think about a topic typically showed slowed reaction times for naming the color of related words (i.e., Stroop interference), as those words become more interesting and accessible. Confirming our hypothesis, participants took longer to name the font color of SNS-related words than that of matched general words when affiliation motivation was evoked. Moreover, priming with affiliation motivation created more Stroop interference for SNS brand names rather than for other global brand names. These results suggest that the idea of online social networking seems to have become deeply rooted in human social practices.

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