The Duality of Envy in Online Social Information Consumption: An Exploratory Study

摘要

This study investigates the duality of envy in online social information consumption. By drawing on the Social Comparison Theory, this study identifies three key aspects of social information consumption, namely social exhibition, network attention strength, and network attention valence, to be important determinants of positive and negative envy emotions induced by such consumption. More importantly, this research elucidates better understanding of individuals' response strategies pertinent to the online social networking environment. To do so, this research investigates the multiplex perspective of online social network usage to determine the behavioral responses of online social network users in regards to online social information consumption. Subsequently, this research empirically examines the impacts of social information consumption have on users' envy emotions and motivations specific to usage of social networking platforms. The research model was tested using an experiment. Contributions are discussed.