Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0002-8984-2663

Document Type

Presentation

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Disciplines

5.1 PSYCHOLOGY, 5.2 ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS, Business and Management., 5.3 EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES, Social issues, Information science (social aspects), Media and socio-cultural communication, 5.9 OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCES, Social sciences, 6. HUMANITIES

Publication Details

This poster intends to discuss the methodological approach employed to achieve the objectives and research questions in this study. This study aims to determine the specific personality traits (e.g. extraversion, agreeableness, openness to new experiences) and/or personality profiles associated with susceptibility to undue influence by social media influencers. Once this is known, a training programme will be developed to help young people enhance skills that will enable them to avoid negative consequences associated with exposure to potentially harmful social media content. A mixed-method (MM) approach will be employed, relying on both quantitative and qualitative methods to achieve the main objectives of this research.

Abstract

This study aims to further the overall understanding of Social Media Influencers (SMIs) and to specifically predict who will be susceptible to influence by them. The main objective of this research relies on to determine whether there is a specific personality profile that predisposes young people to undue influence by social media influencers. Based on previous research published by the journal Frontiers in Psychology titled “The Role of Social Media Influencers in the Lives of Children and Adolescents 1”, a list of potentially harmful content will be compiled. Participants (N=40) in phase one will then be given a standard test of personality and will also complete a short questionnaire asking them about their online browsing habits and to list their top five social media influencers. The content of the most popular influencers will be analysed. Statistical analysis based on personality tests’ results will then be conducted to assess whether there are specific personality traits or personality profiles that are associated with being susceptible to undue influence. The results from phase one will be employed to develop a teaching module that will be delivered to a separate sample of N=40 young people. The purpose of the module will be to develop critical thinking skills and shield against undue influence by SMIs. Finally, post presentation of the module, half of participants (N=20) will be invited to attend a semi-structured interview aiming to understand their perceptions of the module and how effective they believe it was (total sample = 80, 40 males and 40 females).

DOI

10.13140/RG.2.2.27357.74722

Funder

Irish Research Council

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