Abstract
The relationship between social media and empathy has not been explored extensively. Research on the expression of emotion and the association with empathy displayed on social media websites have been minimally explored. This study sought to support findings that posting online leads to expressions of empathy (Rosen, 2012) and a positive relationship exists between conversing with others online and empathic expression (Ivcevic & Ambady, 2012). Empathic concern was hypothesized to show a positive relationship with one’s likelihood to post on Facebook, and emotional connection to Facebook usage in woman. Empathic concern also was predicted to be greater among woman who are Facebook users either via computer, tablet or mobile phone. Finally, it was predicted that the extent to which one uses Facebook would be associated with greater expression of empathic concern. An independent samples t-test was conducted in order to compare genders and how often they post. It was revealed that there is no significant difference between genders and sharing sad post on social media.
Introduction
Now in days social media has taken over our life. On the social media sites people are able to share anything from a vacation to what exactly is on their mind, but does gender play a big role on who shares more of these moments? . Given that more women than men use social media, it is but logical to suppose that this form of media has a sizable impact, both good and bad, on gender matters when showing sympathy. An old Swedish proverb says, “A joy shared is a double joy. A burden shared is half a burden.” No one knows this better than someone who has walked side by side with a friend who is going through difficult times.
Method
Participants
The participants were 386 adults recruited from a large metropolitan city in Northern California. There were 338 participants who identified as females, 55 participants who identified as males, and 2 participants identified as gender non-binary. The age range for the sample was 18 to 86 years (M = 33.49, SD = 12.64). In regards to educational attainment, 4 had less than a high school degree, 155 had a high school diploma or equivalent, 75 had an associate’s degree, 98 had a bachelor’s degree, and 52 had a graduate or professional degree.
Materials and Measures
Data were collected using an online survey. The survey included questions about demographics, social media, and empathy. Quantitative survey was collected
Empathy. Empathy was measured using Jolliffe and Farrington’s (2006) 20-item Basic Empathy Scale (BES). Participants rated each item on a 5-point Likert type scale (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree). Nine items assessed cognitive empathy (e.g., “I can understand my friend’s happiness when s/he does well at something”) and 11 items assessed affective empathy (e.g., “after being with a friend who is sad about something, I usually feel sad”). After reverse-coding eight negatively worded items, participants’ ratings were summed across all 20 items. Participants’ scores could range from 20 (low in empathy) to 100 (high level of empathy). Reliability analyses indicated [poor, moderate, good, very good – choose one] reliability (Cronbach’s α = _____).
[Variable name – used (e.g., your social media variable).
Procedure
[In this section, describe how participants were recruited? Was there informed consent? Was the survey online or paper-and-pencil? Where did participants take the survey? Approximately how long did it take to complete the survey?]
Results
Descriptives
The mean score for empathy was 75.28 (SD = 8.22). The over all mean score for When your see a sad post on social media how likely are you to share it, was 1.83
(SD= .719)The mean score for how very unlike they are to share a sad post was M= 74.93 SD= 9.48, com pared to Unlikey M= 75.38, SD= 7.59
Hypothesis Testing
To test the hypothesis that woman show more empathy by sharing post on social media, an independent samples t-test, was used. The results showed that, there is no significant diffrence between genders when posting a sad post on social media. : ,
t (289) = -.447, p < .655. Thus, the results supported the hypothesis that…] Use this template to report findings for any other hypothesis tests that you ran.
Results
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Discussion
The goal for this research was to examine the relationship between social media and empathy between genders. This was broken down into some hypotheses. The first hypothesis, that posting is positively associated with empathy, was supported. The second hypothesis that Facebook post sharing, was not significant in predicting empathic concern beyond the predictive ability of sociability, the number of contact methods, and gender. Underlying the hypotheses examined in this study was the notion that social media offers users an opportunity to express empathy. These findings go a step beyond the research of Askalani (2012), and suggest that empathy is associated with the amount of time spent on Facebook, the likelihood that one reaches out to others on Facebook, and how involved one is on Facebook. The current study complements the research from Ellison et al. (2007), in that both studies demonstrate socially desirable qualities associated with Facebook usage. The Ellison et al. study found that Facebook intensity had a positive correlation with self-esteem and life satisfaction. The current study showed that Facebook intensity also had a positive correlation with empathic concern. Also, by using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, the current study adds to the body of empathy research done by Davis (1980), who created the IRI. The current research parallels prior research conducted by Rosen (2012), as well as Ivcevic and Ambady (2012), whose studies showed positive correlations between empathic expression and the frequency with people sharing posts on social media.
