Elsevier

Computers in Human Behavior

Volume 75, October 2017, Pages 283-287
Computers in Human Behavior

Full length article
Is exposure to online content depicting risky behavior related to viewers' own risky behavior offline?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.05.023Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Viewing online content depicting risky behavior is linked to users' own behavior.

  • Link between viewing disordered eating content and behavior is moderated by gender.

  • Females may be more vulnerable to online content depicting disordered eating.

Abstract

There are public and governmental concerns that social media may encourage risky behavior in the offline environment. Using international survey data from 412 young adults aged between 18 and 25 years of age (M = 21.20 years, SD = 2.31 years), this study demonstrates that there is a relationship between exposure to online content depicting risky behavior and users’ own offline risky behavior. This relationship was found for six behaviors: drug use, excessive alcohol use, disordered eating, self-harm, violence to others, and dangerous pranks. A borderline effect was found for two further behaviors: unprotected sex and sex with a stranger. The relationship between content depicting disordered eating and offline behavior was only significant for females; suggesting that female users may be more vulnerable to effects of viewing content depicting disordered eating habits, and/or use social media content to find material related to their existing behavior. No other gender moderation effects were found. The findings provide preliminary evidence that social media use may influence offline risky behavior in young adults.

Keywords

Social media
Online
Risky behavior
Internet
Age
Gender

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This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number ES/J500082/1].