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

Abstract

Their sheer size and scale give social networks significant potential for shaping popular opinions. While the spread of information and influence within social networks has been popular area of research for some time, more recently a research trend has appeared in which the researcher seeks to understand how users can aggressively influence community opinions, often using misrepresented or false information. Such misrepresentations by users are deeply troubling for any social network, where revenue-generation and their reputation depend on accurate and reliable user generated information. This study investigates the individual motivations that both promote and inhibit intentions towards personal information misrepresentation. These motivations are hypothesised to result from the dichotomy of competitive and altruistic attitudes existing with social network communities. Results of a survey analysis involving 502 users of Facebook offer insights useful for understanding social network information sharing practices. Marketing strategies, in particular, should benefit from the careful evaluation of the factors that lead to honesty (or dishonesty) among OSN users.

Consumer Information Disclosing Strategy within Consumer Misrepresentation

“…Misrepresentation is a common PPBs, and has been studied the mechanism in economics and marketing [21][22][23][24][25]. Church et al [21] discussed the mechanism that how competition and altruism impact online disclosure behaviors considering user misrepresentation. Drouvelis et al [22] found that consumers' misrepresentation may result in large losses.…”

Information Collection and Personalized Service Strategy of Monopoly under Consumer Misrepresentation

“…Misrepresentation is a common intentional PPB, which enables the consumer to take control of their private information [18,23,24]. Its mechanism has been studied by economics and marketing scholars [22,[25][26][27][28]. Kumar et al [28] have concluded that the Internet makes it easy for people to misrepresent their private information.…”

“…Kumar et al [28] have concluded that the Internet makes it easy for people to misrepresent their private information. Church et al [25] discussed the mechanism through which competition and altruism impact online disclosure behaviors considering user misrepresentation, and found that consumers are less likely to misrepresent if they are altruistic, in which case the firms may benefit. On the other hand, Drouvelis et al [26] found that misrepresentation may result in large losses, as misrepresentation makes marketing methods less effective.…”

Towards a Real Comprehension of Social Networks Effects on Cybermedia Web Traffic: Quantitative Impact in the 27 European Union Countries Most Popular Online Journals

“…Sometimes it is alluded to their capacity for the dissemination of antisocial messages or hate speech (Chetty and Alathur, 2018;Alkiviadou, 2019;Bartal, Pliskin, and Ravid, 2019), on other occasions their role as enablers and sustainers of a novel social warp different from the traditional one is highlighted (Kaur et al, 2018;Church, Thambusamy, and Nemati, 2020) and even in certain cases their growing impact on citizens' sexual habits is emphasized (Traeen et al, 2018).…”