Weibo or WeChat? Assessing Preference for Social Networking Sites and Role of Personality Traits and Psychological Factors

Abstract

Research trying to understand individual difference in the use of different social networking sites (SNSs) is minimal. In the present study, we collected data from 714 college students in China (273 males) to assess how personality traits and psychological factors relate to excessive use of WeChat and Weibo. We found that excessive use of Weibo and WeChat correlated positively with neuroticism, loneliness, and external locus of control and negatively with agreeableness, social support, and social interaction. Furthermore, people that scored high on loneliness, lack of social support, and poor social interaction skills excessively used Weibo more than WeChat. These results entail that by fulfilling different needs, WeChat and Weibo attract different kinds of people; significant lesson for future development of SNSs.

Do men post and women view? The role of gender, personality and emotions in online social activity

“…Based on the above reported literature, we hypothesized that male gender would associate positively with actively posting (Hypothesis 1), whereas female gender would associate positively with viewing others' profiles (Hypothesis 2) (Haferkamp et al, 2012;Special & Li-Barber, 2012;Teppers et al, 2014;Wohn & Lee, 2013). Concerning personality traits, extraversion (Hypothesis 3), openness to experiences (Hypothesis 4), and neuroticism (Hypothesis 5) would associate positively with both actively posting and viewing others' profiles (Blackwell et al, 2017;Chen et al, 2016;Hou et al, 2018;Hughes et al, 2012;Liu & Campbell, 2017;Wee et al, 2017). Finally, since most literature on emotions seems to suggest a link between SNS usage and a lack of emotional abilities, we hypothesized that emotional intelligence would associate negatively with both actively posting and viewing others' profiles (Hypothesis 6; De Choudhury et al, 2013;Moreno et al, 2011;Oldmeadow et al, 2013;Schwartz et al, 2013).…”

“…The majority of research on the psychological correlates of SNS use and attitudes has focused on personality traits (Hou et al, 2018;Hughes, Rowe, Batey, & Lee, 2012;Liu & Campbell, 2017;Oldmeadow, Quinn, & Kowert, 2013;Pettijohn II, LaPiene, Pettijohn, & Horting, 2012;Pornsakulvanich, 2017;Ryan & Xenos, 2011). According to the widely-accepted Five Factor Model of personality (McCrae & Costa, 1999) individuals vary in terms of extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experiences, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.…”

“…Even elderly people who use SNS show similar patterns, as those with a high level of openness and extraversion have more friends, status updates, and group memberships (Mo, Zhou, Kosinski, & Stillwell, 2018). Also neuroticism is positively associated with frequency of SNS usage (Blackwell et al, 2017;Correa et al, 2010;Hou et al, 2018). Ross and colleagues (2009) suggest that neurotic people may use SNS to look for the attention and the support that they miss from their everyday lives.…”

“…Second, we considered two different behaviours (i.e., information-seeking and actively posting), that, in the perspective of Nadkarni and Hofmann (2012), allow belongingness needs to be met. Third, we examined concurrently the role of gender, personality traits and emotions (past research has tended to consider only one or two of these variables, e.g., Hou et al, 2018;Liu & Campbell, 2017;Muscanell & Guadagno, 2012). Fourth, in regards to emotions, we referred to the construct of emotional intelligence (past research has focused on the content of emotions expressed through social media, e.g., Oldmeadow et al, 2013;Qiu et al, 2012;Schwartz et al, 2013).…”

Social Networks Use Disorder and Associations With Depression and Anxiety Symptoms: A Systematic Review of Recent Research in China

“…Montag et al (2015) reported correlations between SNUD and unspecified Internet-use disorder amongst Chinese and Taiwanese samples. Hou et al (2018) assessed how personality traits and psychological factors relate to excessive use of WeChat R and Weibo R . The results showed that addictive use of Weibo R and WeChat R correlated positively with neuroticism, loneliness, and external locus of control and negatively with agreeableness, social support, and social interaction.…”