Factors explaining participation in WhatsApp groups: an exploratory study
| Pages | 390-413 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-03-2018-0053 |
| Published date | 16 July 2018 |
| Date | 16 July 2018 |
| Author | Tali Gazit,Noa Aharony |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management |
Factors explaining participation
in WhatsApp groups:
an exploratory study
Tali Gazit and Noa Aharony
Department of Information Science, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
Abstract
Purpose –To date, only a limited number of studies have considered WhatsApp groups. The purpose of this
paper is to focus on single WhatsApp groups and explore their special characteristics and dynamics. The
present study used the social support perspective, Big Five model and narcissism paradigm to predict the
level of participation in WhatsApp groups with these variables.
Design/methodology/approach –The research was conducted in Israel during the Spring semester of the
2017 academic year and encompassed 127 students. Researchers used eight questionnaires to gather data: a
demographic questionnaire; a perceived social support questionnaire; three characteristics from the BIG5
questionnaire: extroversion, openness to experience and neuroticism; a narcissistic questionnaire; questions
about WhatsApp usage; questions about one meaningful WhatsApp group; participation level in the
meaningful group; and group importance.
Findings –The findings confirmed that psychological factors such as social support, extroversion and
narcissism significantly predict the level of participation in WhatsApp groups. It was also found that age, the
level of group importance, being the group’s manager, WhatsApp usage and group’s subject play an
important role in the participation level.
Originality/value –These results affirmed the importance of psychological factors when exploring
new technological platforms, as the paper proposes that individuals may behave differently in various
technological environments due to their psychological characteristics. The study expanded current research
about a popular communication tool, WhatsApp, by examining it within the special context of
WhatsApp groups. This focus enables researchers to follow the special dynamics that take place in a new
technological platform.
Keywords Social support, Narcissism, WhatsApp, BIG5, Online groups, Participation level
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Social networking sites (SNS) have gained popularity in recent years, and have become viral
as they appear as applications for smartphones. This enables individuals to connect from
any location to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn or WhatsApp without having to
connect to the site (Magro et al., 2013).
WhatsApp is a primary mobile instant messaging application that enables users to send
each other text, images, video and audio messages. It allows individuals to socialize and stay
connected at no charge. As of January 2017, the number of active users in the application
has reached 1.2bn monthly users worldwide (Statista, 2017). WhatsApp is one of the leading
instant multimedia messaging service in cellular networks.
There are pros and cons to using WhatsApp. From the positive perspective, several
studies found that using WhatsApp was an efficient communication technology and
concluded that it was a useful tool that can transfer data rapidly (Dorwal et al., 2016;
Gulacti et al., 2016; Johnston et al., 2015). In addition, Aharony (2015b) investigated the social
capital that students gain from WhatsApp use, revealing that well-being variables, as well
as WhatsApp attitudes and intention to use, affect the social capital students gain while
using WhatsApp. Concerning the negative aspect of WhatsApp usage, Aharony and
Zion (2018) explored the effect of WhatsApp distractions on pupils’working memory
performance. They revealed that WhatsApp’s distractions, transmitted via smartphones,
decrease pupils’performance of working memory. In addition, students were aware of the
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 70 No. 4, 2018
pp. 390-413
© Emerald PublishingLimited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-03-2018-0053
Received 10 March 2018
Revised 13 May 2018
8June2018
Accepted 25 June 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2050-3806.htm
390
AJIM
70,4
difficulty WhatsApp caused while performing a learning task, and of the decrease in
learning effectiveness.
One of the special characteristics of WhatsApp is the capability to create and interact
with groups from 3 to 256 members. In these groups, the person who opened the group is
also its manager, and can add and remove participants without the need for approval by
the rest of the group. Seufert et al. (2015) explored 234 WhatsApp group chats and found
that they are used m ainly for communi cation with specifically selected members who
know each other. In addition, the group chat feature is used frequently by almost every
WhatsApp user –a fact that turns it into a key function of WhatsApp. Recently, Cheung
et al. (2017) delved into WhatsApp and Facebook groups, used for smoking cessation,
suggesting that these groups provided a useful platform for the delivery of smoking
cessation support, as individuals could benefit from peer support and information sharing.
In addition, Aharony and Gazit (2016) investigated how attachment theory, social support
and openness to experience predict the importance of the WhatsApp family group.
Findings showed that openness to experience and social support significantly
predicted the importance of the WhatsApp family group, and that there is a complex
and ambiguous relationship between the attachmentvariablesandtheimportanceofthe
WhatsApp family group.
Various studies have explored WhatsApp use, and yet, only a limited number of studies
have focused on WhatsApp groups. Different studiesfound that active participationin online
groups has positive effects on people’s well-being (Herrero et al., 2004; van Uden-Kraan et al.,
2008). Thus, it is interesting to explore the level of participation in WhatsApp groups that
includes an exclusive, closed group of individuals, as it enables social support and may
increase individuals’well-being.
This current study focuses on single WhatsApp groups and tries to explore how the
psychological variables, social support perspective, Big Five model and narcissism
paradigm, can predict the participation level in WhatsApp groups.
The objectives of this study are threefold:
•To what extent does the social support perspective explain the level of participation
in WhatsApp groups?
•To what extent do three variables derived from the Big Five model (extroversion,
openness to experience and neuroticism) explain the level of participation in
WhatsApp groups?
•To what extent does the narcissism paradigm explain the level of participation in
WhatsApp groups?
The study expands the current literature by providing another psychological layer
and explanation to our understanding of the factors that may contribute to WhatsApp
group participation.
Literature review
Participation in social networks
Participation level in online groups, and especially in SNS, has been a key interest in
internet psychology research for quite some time (Bronstein et al., 2016).
Various scholars proposed that only a small percentage of individuals actively
contribute to online discussions. In fact, the majority of online community users play a
passive role in virtual groups (Han et al., 2014; Jones et al., 2004; Nonnecke and Preece, 2000).
According to the 90-9-1 rule, 90 percent of users do not actively participate in online
discussions, while 9 percent of users contribute to some degree and only 1 percent of users
account for almost all action online (Nielsen, 2006; van Mierlo, 2014).
391
WhatsApp
participation
factors
To continue reading
Request your trial