Unformatted Attachment Preview
J Bus Ethics (2014) 123:85–98
DOI 10.1007/s10551-013-1806-z
The Means to Justify the End: Combating Cyber Harassment
in Social Media
Tom van Laer
Received: 7 March 2013 / Accepted: 4 July 2013 / Published online: 17 July 2013
Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
Abstract Cyber harassment can have harmful effects on
social media users, such as emotional distress and, consequently, withdrawal from social network sites or even life
itself. At the same time, users are often upset when network
providers intervene and deem such an intrusion an unjust
occurrence. This article analyzes how decisions to intervene can be communicated in such a way that users consider them adequate and acceptable. A first experiment
shows that informational justice perceptions of social network users depend on the format in which network providers present the decision to intervene. More specifically,
if a decision to intervene is presented in the form of a story,
as opposed to an analytical rendering of facts and arguments, decisions to intervene prompt more positive informational justice perceptions. A second experiment reveals
that when users relate the experience to themselves, narrative transportation increases, which positively affects
perceptions of the justice of decisions to intervene.
Keywords Cyber bullying Cyber harassment Identity
Justice perception Narrative transportation Selfreferencing Social media Storytelling
Introduction
In the past 10 years, social media have revolutionized the
way people share experiences with businesses. A central
characteristic of social media is that network providers
encourage individuals to use their thoughts, feelings, likes,
T. van Laer (&)
Department of Marketing, ESCP Europe Business School,
527 Finchley Road, London NW3 7BG, UK
e-mail: tvanlaer@escpeurope.eu
and dislikes to express their affiliation with certain content,
figures, products, and brands and to construct a public or
semi-public profile (Boyd and Ellison 2007; Schau and
Gilly 2003). At the same time, these profiles open up an
online avenue for people to be harassed. Cyber harassment
involves a course of action in which an adult individual or
groups of individuals use digital media to cause another
individual to suffer emotional distress (Bocij 2004). Many
people suffer from cyber harassment. In the United States
alone, estimates indicate that more than half a million
people age 18 or older have been victims of cyber
harassment (Baum et al. 2009). Not only does cyber
harassment negatively affect social network sites, because
victims tend to exit the service (Avery 2010; Martin and
Smith 2008), but the emotional distress brought about by
the online aggression can also cause victims to take their
own lives (Parker 2012). For example, an 18-year-old
student at a U.S. university committed suicide after discovering his roommate electronically spied on him and
gossiped about him on Twitter.
To combat cyber harassment in social media, network
providers have experimented, with varying success, with
monitoring technologies that enable detection and discontinuation of cyber harassment, such as Facebook’s report
systems and evaluation tools (Levine 2013). Paradoxically,
users of social media often view the use of these tools as an
unwarranted intervention that limits a rich expression of
their online identities. Previous studies confirm that the
impact of these undesired intrusions is a growing topic of
debate (Reitsma et al. 2011; Sledgianowski and Kulviwat
2009). In this debate, critics of network provider interventions frequently argue that it leads to the manifestation
of an Orwellian reality and that users feel strongly about
preventing such intrusions because they express their
identities through social media (Brunk 2012; Pruitt 2003).
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A case in point is Digg, a social news site on which users
can evaluate articles and blogs published elsewhere on the
Internet (www.digg.com). From early 2009 to late 2010, a
large group of users banded together to control what
appeared on the front page of the social news site. These
users culled Digg’s pages to find what they considered
liberal or otherwise anti-conservative users. They then used
the site’s ‘‘bury’’ option to force those users’ stories off the
front page. In response, Digg removed the possibility to
bury stories, which led to anger and frustration among the
general Digg audience who used both the ‘‘digg’’ and
‘‘bury’’ options to express themselves (Lowensohn 2010).
In no time, Digg visits dropped substantially (Tassi 2012).
Accordingly, users value the freedom to express their
online identities without interference and therefore may
oppose network provider intrusions that hinder this. As
such, interventions are perceived as a violation of user
identity. In this debate, however, advocates of network
provider initiatives aimed to curb cyber harassment suggest
that under certain circumstances, users may recognize that
network providers have an obligation to take actions that
protect fellow users from harm (Citron 2009; Lipton 2011).
In these cases, they may view intervention as morally
justified good stewardship and may be more tolerant of
some degree of identity violation (Finn 2004).
The general aim of this article is to explore how this
catch-22 can be resolved by framing the ways decisions to
intervene are communicated to users. To support this aim,
this research focuses on informational justice perception, or
the perceived adequacy of explanations for decisions
(Greenberg 1993). I turn to narrative transportation
research, the central premise of which is that when consumers lose themselves in a story, their perceptions change
to reflect that story (Green 2008). This is in apparent
contrast with a case for intervention following a logical line
of argument, which seems more common with network
provider decisions to intervene that are replete with legal
and extra-legal regulatory jargon (Pogue 2013). In particular, differences may exist in the degree to which the
justification for the decision evokes reflections on the self.
This research investigates these differences and makes
three important contributions to extant literature.
First, I contend that a decision to intervene based on a
story has a more positive effect on user perceptions than an
analytical, factual format. I further distinguish two main
components of identity: personal and social (Dollinger
et al. 1996; Reid and Deaux 1996). Personal identity refers
to ‘‘the person’s construction and maintenance of an
autobiography—a life story that is built, told to (and by)
others in various contexts, and from time to time revised to
fit changing experiences or preferences’’ (Hewitt 2003,
p. 111). In contrast, social identity is the aspect of one’s
identity that is derived from participating in various interest
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T. van Laer
groups on social network sites for instance (Tajfel and
Turner 2004). I explore whether the effect of the story
versus the analytical format holds across both components.
Second, I advance understanding of the mechanism
underlying the presentation format effect. When people
process an analytical format, they examine the implications
of each piece of information separately and then average
these implications to form an overall perception (Fishbein
and Yzer 2003; Schellens and de Jong 2004). However, I
argue that piecemeal computational processing does not
hold for justice perceptions of decisions to intervene in
social media because of the characteristic story format of
identity construction in social media (Kozinets et al. 2010;
Van Laer and De Ruyter 2010; Van Laer et al. 2013).
Stories often cause people to become engrossed, an effect
referred to as narrative transportation (Green and Brock
2000). I examine whether the narrative transportation
people experience leads to a justice perception that the
story events imply.
Third, I move beyond the prediction that presentation
format is associated with justice perceptions by exploring
an intra-individual moderator that influences this relationship. Prior research has proposed that encouraging people
to reflect on the self and to experience an event from their
own perspectives has both a positive (Escalas 2004, 2007)
and a negative (Burnkrant and Unnava 1989, 1995) impact
on perceptions. Both effects can be conceptualized as
belonging to the self-referencing information-processing
strategy. The current research investigates why self-referencing may lead to either less or more positive justice
perceptions under the framework of the story and analytical
presentation formats.
Justice Perceptions of Decisions to Intervene Across
Identity Violations
Offline harassment has a well-established body of business
ethics research that includes racial harassment (e.g., Stevens 2001), sexual harassment (e.g., Baugh 1997; Bell
et al. 2002; Wells and Kracher 1993), and work victimization (e.g., Vega and Comer 2005; Wornham 2003), but
the identification and investigation of cyber harassment and
cyber stalking (i.e., repeated cyber harassment over a
period of time) are an under-exposed research theme. In
contrast, cyber harassment receives considerably more
attention in the popular press. Signs of this zeitgeist include
The Economist (2011, p. 63) warning that ‘‘the internet allows the malicious to menace their victims’’ and The
New Yorker assertion that cyber harassment should be
treated as a serious offense and harassers should face
imprisonment (Parker 2012).
The Means to Justify the End
Network providers have a variety of monitoring technologies at their disposal to intervene in social networks to
combat cyber harassment. I contend that users may have
justice perceptions of network provider decisions to intervene. Such perceptions of network provider decisions can
range from morally just to intolerable identity violation. To
test this argument, this article focuses on informational
justice perception, or the perceived adequacy of explanations for decisions (Greenberg 1993). Adequate justification is a moral right that is frequently neglected in the case
of dilemmas on the web, such as protecting one user from
cyber harassment versus respecting another user’s freedom
to construct an online identity without interference (Sama
and Shoaf 2002).
There is theoretical and empirical support for the notion
that people not only value their freedom to construct an
online identity but are motivated to defend their identity
more generally against threats and violations. Identity
violation is a defiance of one’s identity, which is more
extreme than simply the potential for violation to be
present in what is commonly referred to as identity threat
(Mayer et al. 2009). A decision that violates personal or
social identity has a negative influence on justice perceptions. Mayer et al. (2009) further note that the two components differ in the influence they exert on people’s
reactions to decisions. People seem to devalue justice less
when a decision violates social identity. That is, feeling
part of a group can initiate a process of depersonalization,
so people’s conceptualization of themselves in that context
aligns with group norms (Postmes et al. 1998; Terry and
Hogg 1996). Decisions that affect group members overall
are more likely to prompt evaluations based on justice
concerns for the group, rather than for the individual
(Leung et al. 2007). Such evaluations may cause the
resulting justice perceptions to be less negative than it
would have been had the decision violated personal identity. For social identity violation, ‘‘sorrow shared is sorrow
halved,’’ so decisions may be endured more easily when
shared with others.
Presentation Format of Decisions to Intervene
As noted previously, research suggests that decisions that
violate social identity affect justice perceptions less than
decisions that violate personal identity, because people
consider a widespread violation more just. However, the
presentation format of the decision may influence this
relationship. Mayer et al. (2009) focus on decisions that are
presented as a case for intervention following a logical line
of argument. When people process such an analytical,
factual format, they examine the implications of each piece
of information separately and then average these
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implications to form an overall perception (Fishbein and
Yzer 2003; Schellens and de Jong 2004). However,
piecemeal computational processing may not hold for
justice perceptions of decisions to intervene in social media
because of the characteristic story format of identity construction in social media. Regarding this characteristic, a
story is the account of an event or a sequence of events,
leading to a transition from an initial state to a later or end
state, which a storyteller conveys to a recipient (Bennett
and Royle 2004). Stories often cause people to become
engrossed, an effect referred to as narrative transportation,
which captures the extent to which (1) a recipient empathizes with the story characters and (2) his or her imagination is activated by the story events, which leads him or
her to experience suspended reality during the story
reception (Van Laer et al., forthcoming). In turn, people’s
empathy with the story characters may lead to a justice
perception that the story events induce and that represents a
shift from people’s justice perceptions before narrative
transportation (Appel 2008; Green and Brock 2000). Social
media users who read a transporting story of cyber
harassment may thus empathize with the victim, which
may lead to a lack of awareness of their own identity.
Therefore, users should perceive a decision to intervene,
which violates personal identity, as more just when it is
based on a story rather than an analytical format. Thus, I
hypothesize the following:
H1 When a decision to intervene violates personal
identity, users perceive more informational justice if the
decision is presented in a story format rather than an analytical format.
H2 Narrative transportation mediates the effect of presentation format on informational justice perception.
Self-referencing Strategy
A decision to intervene in a story format should cause users
to empathize more with the victim than a decision in an
analytical format. A self-referencing strategy could exacerbate this effect. This information-processing strategy
encourages people to experience a story from their own
perspectives (Burnkrant and Unnava 1989). According to
Escalas (2004), an expression such as ‘‘Imagine yourself…’’ prompts a self-referencing strategy. Gross-Schaefer
et al. (2000) suggest this strategy for successful ethics
education.
With a self-referencing strategy, people are encouraged
to use their personal identity, or their thoughts, feelings,
likes, and dislikes, to process information. On the one
hand, if the information is presented in an analytical format, people who use personal identity may take a more
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critical look at the information. Not surprisingly, several
authors argue that the use of this strategy may decrease the
possibility that people will perceive a decision as just
(Burnkrant and Unnava 1989, 1995; Meyers-Levy and
Peracchio 1996). On the other hand, if the information is
presented in a story format, these people may imagine
themselves as the main story character. Being transported
into their own cyber-harassment story in this way increases
the possibility that they will perceive a decision to intervene as just (Escalas 2007). Therefore, the best way to have
social media users perceive justice seems to be through a
cyber-harassment story in which they imagine themselves
as the victim and are stimulated to invent a different outcome to their experience (i.e., network provider intervention). Thus, I hypothesize the following:
H3a When a decision to intervene is presented in a story
format, users perceive more informational justice if the
decision encourages a self-referencing strategy.
H3b When a decision to intervene is presented in an
analytical format, users perceive less informational justice
if the decision encourages a self-referencing strategy.
Two experiments were designed to examine boundary
conditions of the communication of decisions to intervene
in social media to combat cyber harassment. Specifically,
the purpose of Experiment 1 was to test Hypotheses 1 and
2. Experiment 2 explored these relationships further to test
Hypotheses 2, 3a, and 3b.
T. van Laer
current state of social media activity around the world
(comScore 2011). They were covaried in the hypotheses
tests to increase statistical power.1
Materials and Procedure
On entering the laboratory, participants were informed that
they would be asked to take part in a study aimed to
understand a decision the network provider of the business
school’s social network site was in the process of making.
Specifically, they were told that a major issue at the school
was how the network provider planned to limit cyber
harassment on the site. Participants were told that they
would be asked to read a fictitious wall post2 from the
network provider about how he planned to handle the
cyber-harassment situation. After the introduction to
the study, the participants saw a fictitious wall post on the
school’s social network site signed by the network provider
with an e-mail address of the school’s IT service desk. The
wall post began as follows:
As you may be aware, there has been considerable
debate in the school regarding the issue of cyber
harassment on [social network site name].
The next part of the wall post introduced the presentation
format manipulation. In the story format condition, the wall
post continued as follows:
To give a brief background, one cyber-harasser posted hundreds of messages in the past month, depicting
a fellow student as a talentless, sex-crazed swindler.
Then the harasser created a profile under the victim’s
name and left obscene messages on the victim’s own
wall. Now not only the victim gets daily death
threats, but so do the victim’s friends and fellow
students. The victim feels humiliated, helpless, and
abused and the victim’s studies and social life suffer.
Experiment 1
Methods
The purpose of Experiment 1 was to examine whether
identity violation and presentation format of a decision to
intervene interact in their effect on justice perceptions.
Both identity violation and presentation format were
manipulated. The study had a randomized 2 (identity violation: personal or social) 9 2 (presentation format: story
or analytical) full-factorial design.
In the analytical format condition, the wall post continued
as follows:
To give a brief background, there have been issues
with stalking of certain students, insults, the creation
of false profiles, obscene messages on victims’ own
walls, and widespread death threats. These cause
victims emotional distress, which has harmful effects
on their studies and social life.
Participants
Participants received course credit for participation, and
confidentiality was assured. Participants were 124 graduate
business students (39.5 % female). The age of the participants ranged from 19 to 38 years, with an average age of
25.32 years (SD = 3.66). The average amount of hours per
month spent on social media was 6.67 (SD = 2.30), with
an average tenure of having a social media profile of
2.37 years (SD = 1.61). These statistics correspond to the
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Following the presentation format manipulation, information was provided about the decision the network
1
Analyzes were also run without covariates. The only major
differences were inflated effect sizes.
2
I tested all materials with an extensive pretest.
The Means to Justify the End
provider made. In the personal identity violation condition,
the wall post continued as follows:
As the network provider, I believe something must be
done to address this problem. I have decided that not
intervening in your personal conversations would
result in you continuing to behave inappropriately.
Thus, I have decided to delete insulting, obscene, or
threatening messages from your personal wall and to
discontinue false profiles as well as your personal
profile if your conversations are deemed inappropriate.
In the social identity violation condition, the wall post
continued as follows:
As the network provider, I believe something must be
done to address this problem. I have decided that not
intervening in peer-to-peer conversations would
result in users continuing to behave inappropriately.
Thus, I have decided to delete insulting, obscene, or
threatening messages from user walls and to discontinue false profiles as well as user profiles if their
conversations are deemed inappropriate.
In all conditions, the wall post concluded with the
following statement:
I hope this decision will help our social network
regain its status as a social medium with users that
make us proud.
After reading the wall post, participants responded to narrative transportation, informational justice perception, and
control measures; manipulation check items; and demographic measures. At the conclusion of the study, participants
took part in a funneled debriefing procedure, in which they
answered seven open-ended questions, starting with general
questions (‘‘What do you think the purpose of this experiment
was?’’) and ending with more specific questions (‘‘What were
you trying to do while reading the wall post on the computer
monitor? Did you have any particular goal or strategy). Participants were then thanked and dismissed.
Measures3
Dependent Measures
Informational justice perception was measured with a fiveitem scale (a = .89) adopted from Colquitt (2001). The
7-point Likert-type scale ranged from ‘‘strongly disagree’’
to ‘‘strongly agree.’’
The measure of narrative transportation was based on
the scale that Green and Brock (2000) developed. Twelve
3
See the Appendix for all complete scales.
89
items were measured (a = .89). The 7-point Likert-type
scale ranged from ‘‘strongly disagree’’ to ‘‘strongly agree.’’
Control Measures
Mayer et al. (2009) suggest that people’s social identification influences their justice perceptions. People with a
lower level of identification with their social group may be
less likely to perceive a decision to intervene as just even
when the decision violates their social identity. To ensure
that participants’ social identification is a separate construct from the justice perception measure, I used social
identification as a covariate in the analyzes. I measured this
variable using Mayer et al.’s scale, which consists of three
items (a = .86). The 7-point Likert-type scale ranged from
‘‘strongly disagree’’ to ‘‘strongly agree.’’
Furthermore, I controlled for personality traits that could
covary with processing information in different presentation formats. Fantasy absorption (Tellegen and Atkinson
1974) and need for cognition (Cacioppo et al. 1996) were
measured. The fantasy absorption scale includes three
items (a = .95). The need-for-cognition scale includes 18
items (a = .79). Both 7-point Likert-type scales ranged
from ‘‘strongly disagree’’ to ‘‘strongly agree.’’
Manipulation Checks
I adapted Mayer et al.’s (2009) identity violation measure for
the purpose of this study. The identity violation measure
contained eight items (a = .92). The 7-point Likert-type
scale ranged from ‘‘strongly disagree’’ to ‘‘strongly agree.’’
Presentation format manipulation checks were adapted
from Woodside et al.’s (2008) article on storytelling for the
purpose of this study. The presentation format manipulation
check had nine items (a = .96). The 7-point Likert-type
scale ranged from ‘‘strongly disagree’’ to ‘‘strongly agree.’’
Results
During the funneled debriefing, no participant indicated
awareness of the manipulations during the experiment.
Table 1 lists the means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations of the key variables.
Manipulation Checks
Before testing the hypotheses, I examined whether the
manipulations were successful by conducting independentsamples t tests. The results revealed that participants in the
personal identity violation condition reported their personal
identity as being more violated (M = 5.10, SD = 1.59); in
contrast, participants in the social identity violation
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T. van Laer
Table 1 Experiment 1: descriptive statistics
M (SD)
1. Storytelling
1
2
3
4
5
6
3.97 (2.35)
2. Reported identity violation
3.98 (1.93)
3. Informational justice perception
4.47 (1.33)
-.08
.28**
-.21*
4. Narrative transportation
4.10 (1.44)
.33**
.05
.42**
5. Social identification
4.11 (1.10)
.05
.08
.07
6. Fantasy absorption
3.99 (1.05)
.01
-.17
.02
.01
.13
7. Need for cognition
4.44 (1.04)
.09
.07
.03
-.01
-.04
-.06
.02
* p \ .05; ** p \ .01
7
Hypotheses Tests
Informational justice perception was analyzed with a 2 9 2
analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), with identity violation
(personal or social) and presentation format (story or analytical) as between-subjects factors and the demographic
(sex, age, time spent online, and social media tenure) and
control (social identification, fantasy absorption, and need
for cognition) variables as covariates. The results revealed
main effects of identity violation (F(1, 113) = 11.10,
p \ .01, g2p = .089) and presentation format (F(1, 113) =
11.39, p \ .01, g2p = .092) and an interaction between
identity violation and presentation format (F(1, 113) =
10.06, p \ .01, g2p = .082). Tests of simple effects on the
adjusted means indicated that in the personal identity
violation condition, the difference in informational justice
perception was significant for presentation format (see
Fig. 1). The story format resulted in greater informational
justice perception than the analytical format (mean difference = 1.44, SE = .31, p \ .001). In the social identity
violation condition, there was no effect of presentation
format (mean difference = .04, SE = .31, p = .901).
These results support Hypothesis 1.
I bootstrapped the indirect effects of presentation format
on informational justice perception, using Preacher and
Hayes’s (2004, 2008) approach. The bootstrap estimates
presented here are based on 5,000 bootstrap samples. In
agreement with Hypothesis 2, narrative transportation
mediated the relationship between presentation format and
informational justice perception (point estimate = .42, bias
corrected and accelerated 95 % CI = .15 ± .76).
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Story format
Analytical format
Informational justice perception
condition reported their social identity as being more violated (M = 2.86, SD = 1.56; t(122) = 7.94, p \ .001). In
addition, the presentation format manipulation had a significant effect on participants’ reported storytelling
(t(122) = 11.92, p \ .001). The results indicated that participants in the story format condition reported more storytelling (M = 5.69, SD = 1.66) than participants in the
analytical format condition (M = 2.25, SD = 1.56).
6
5
4
3
2
1
Personal identity violation
Social identity violation
Fig. 1 Experiment 1: informational justice perception for different
presentation format and identity violation combinations. Error bars
indicate the standard error
Discussion
In Experiment 1, I examined personal and social identity
violations as well as story and analytical presentation formats and their interaction effect on a justice perception.
Consistent with Hypothesis 1, if a decision to intervene
violated a user’s personal identity, when the decision was
presented in a story format, it was perceived as more just
than when it was presented in an analytical format. The
other relevant finding was for Hypothesis 2, which
involved mediation of the relationship between presentation format and justice perception by narrative transportation. Thus, this research provides boundary conditions on
the communication of decisions to intervene in social
media and extends work on the dilemma between one
user’s right to freely construct an online identity and
another user’s right to protection from cyber harassment.
Indeed, I find that it does not take the violation of a user’s
social identity per se to reduce the influence of decisions to
intervene on justice perceptions; rather, when the decision
to intervene is presented in a story format, the effect on
justice perceptions is negligible.
The Means to Justify the End
Experiment 2
In Experiment 2, I built on my findings in Experiment 1.
First, instead of manipulating identity violation within the
context of a network provider decision that affects users of
a business school’s social network site, I asked participants
to imagine cyber harassment in their actual social media
experiences. Thus, Experiment 2 improved the generalizability of the findings in Experiment 1; that is, instead of
hypothetical cyber harassment on the business school’s
social network site, Experiment 2 examined cyber harassment that would actually affect participants in social
media. Second, I examined an explanation for the presentation format effect when a decision to intervene violates
personal identity. Specifically, I drew on self-referencing
strategy (Burnkrant and Unnava 1989) to examine whether
a decision’s encouragement to use a person’s personal
identity to process the information by self-referencing
serves as an explanation for the presentation format effect
when a decision to intervene violates personal identity.
Method
I examined the interaction between the format in which the
decision is presented to users and whether the decision
encourages self-referencing. Both presentation format and
self-referencing strategy were manipulated. Experiment 2
was a randomized 2 (presentation format: story or analytical) 9 2 (self-referencing: encouraged or not encouraged)
full-factorial design.
Participants
Participants received course credit for participation, and
confidentiality was assured. Participants were 233 different
graduate business students from those in Experiment 1
(48.5 % female). The age of the participants ranged from
19 to 35 years, with an average age of 25.57 years
(SD = 3.58). The average amount of hours per month
spent on social media was 6.38 (SD = 2.51), and the
average tenure of having a social media profile was
2.52 years (SD = 1.51). These statistics are similar to
those of social media users around the world (comScore
2011). They were covaried in the hypotheses tests to
increase statistical power.1
Materials and Procedure
This experiment was based on the same introduction as
Experiment 1. A fictitious wall post2 on a computer screen
followed the study introduction. The wall post began with
the following opening statement:
91
As you may be aware, there has been considerable
debate on the Internet regarding the issue of cyber
harassment on your favorite social network.
The next part of the wall post introduced the presentation
format and self-referencing manipulations. There were four
conditions:
Story Format, Encouraged Self-referencing
To give a brief background, imagine that one cyberharasser posted hundreds of messages in the past
month, depicting you as a talentless, sex-crazed
swindler. Then the harasser created a profile under
your name and left obscene messages on your own
wall. Now not only you get daily death threats, but so
do your friends and fellow students. You feel
humiliated, helpless, and abused and your studies and
social life suffer.
Story Format, Not Encouraged Self-referencing
To give a brief background, one cyber-harasser posted hundreds of messages in the past month, depicting
a fellow student as a talentless, sex-crazed swindler.
Then the harasser created a profile under the victim’s
name and left obscene messages on the victim’s own
wall. Now not only the victim gets daily death
threats, but so do the victim’s friends and fellow
students. The victim feels humiliated, helpless, and
abused and the victim’s studies and social life suffer.
Analytical Format, Encouraged Self-referencing
To give a brief background, imagine being stalked,
insulted, a false profile created under your name,
obscene messages on your own wall, and widespread
death threats. These cause you emotional distress,
which has harmful effects on your studies and social
life.
Analytical Format, Not Encouraged Self-referencing
To give a brief background, there have been issues
with stalking of certain students, insults, the creation
of false profiles, obscene messages on victims’ own
walls, and widespread death threats. These cause
victims emotional distress, which has harmful effects
on their studies and social life.
Following the manipulations, information was provided
about the decision the network provider made. The wall
post continued and concluded similar to the personal
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Table 2 Experiment 2: descriptive statistics
M (SD)
1
2
1. Storytelling
4.19 (1.63)
2. Reported self-referencing
4.13 (1.57)
.09
3. Informational justice perception
4.14 (1.55)
.18**
3
4
5
6
-.01
4. Narrative transportation
3.77 (.86)
.15*
5. Fantasy absorption
3.97 (.95)
.05
-.10
.08
-.04
.37**
6. Need for cognition
4.04 (.96)
-.12
-.07
-.17*
-.06
7. Attitude toward interventions
4.01 (1.05)
.07
-.07
.08
-.01
.01
-.00
.16*
.04
* p \ .05; ** p \ .01
identity violation condition of Experiment 1 (‘‘As the
network provider…’’). After reading the wall post, participants responded to a series of scales regarding the wall
post. The scales included narrative transportation, informational justice perception, and control measures; manipulation check items; and demographic measures. At the
conclusion of the study, the funneled debriefing of Experiment 1 was administered. Participants were then thanked
and dismissed.
Measures3
study. The self-referencing manipulation check had five
items (a = .86). The participants responded on a 7-point
Likert-type scale ranging from ‘‘not at all’’ to ‘‘very
much.’’
Results
During the funneled debriefing, no participant indicated
awareness of the manipulations during the experiment.
Table 2 lists the means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations of the key study variables.
Dependent and Control Measures
Manipulation Checks
Informational justice perception (a = .79) and narrative
transportation measures (a = .89) were the same dependent measures as those in Experiment 1. Similar to
Experiment 1, in Experiment 2 I controlled for personality
traits that could covary with processing information in
different presentation formats—in this case, fantasy
absorption (a = .91) and need for cognition (a = .80).4
Escalas (2004) finds that the effect of self-referencing on
message-based perceptions covaries with attitude toward
the message topic. Attitude toward interventions concerns
this covariance in my study. I used four 7-point semantic
differential-type scales (a = .89) to measure attitude
toward interventions.
Manipulation Checks
Consistent with Experiment 1, I conducted manipulation
checks to ensure that the story and analytical presentation
formats are distinct concepts. I used the same nine items as
in Experiment 1 (a = .89).
Self-referencing manipulation checks were adapted
from Burnkrant and Unnava (1995) for the purpose of this
4
Unlike Experiment 1, I did not deem it useful to measure social
identification, because I only considered personal identity violation in
Experiment 2.
123
Before testing the hypotheses, I examined whether the
manipulations were successful by conducting independentsamples t tests. The presentation format manipulation had a
significant effect on participants’ storytelling perceptions
(t(231) = 6.41, p \ .001). The results indicated that participants in the story format condition reported more storytelling (M = 4.82, SD = 1.58) than participants in the
analytical format condition (M = 3.56, SD = 1.43). The
self-referencing manipulation had a significant effect on
participants’ reported self-referencing (t(231) = 3.54,
p \ .001). The results indicated that participants in the
encouraged self-referencing condition reported more selfreferencing (M = 4.48, SD = 1.57) than those in the not
encouraged self-referencing condition
(M = 3.77,
SD = 1.50).
Hypotheses Tests
Informational justice perception was analyzed with a 2 9 2
ANCOVA, with presentation format (story or analytical)
and self-referencing (encouraged or not encouraged) as
between-subjects factors and the demographic (sex, age,
time spent online, and social media tenure) and control
(fantasy absorption, need for cognition, and attitude toward
interventions) variables as covariates. There was a main
The Means to Justify the End
93
effect of presentation format (F(1, 222) = 235.97 p \ .001,
g2p = .515), qualified by an interaction between presentation format and self-referencing (F(1, 222) = 33.55,
p \ .001, g2p = .131). Tests of simple effects on the
adjusted means indicated that in both the story and the
analytical presentation format conditions, the difference in
informational justice perceptions was significant for selfreferencing (see Fig. 2). The story format resulted in
greater informational justice perception when self-referencing was encouraged (mean difference = .69, SE = .20,
p \ .001). The analytical format resulted in lesser informational justice perception when self-referencing was
encouraged (mean difference = .90, SE = .20, p \ .001).
These results support Hypotheses 3a and 3b.
I again bootstrapped the indirect effects of presentation
format on informational justice perception, using Preacher
and Hayes’s (2004, 2008) approach. The bootstrap estimates presented here are based on 5,000 bootstrap samples.
In agreement with Hypothesis 2, narrative transportation
mediated the relationship between presentation format and
informational justice perception (point estimate = .16, bias
corrected and accelerated 95 % CI = .06 ± .28).
Discussion
The results of Experiment 2 are consistent with the proposed effect of self-referencing. Specifically, a significant
interaction occurred between presentation format and selfreferencing on informational justice perception. If the
decision to intervene encouraged self-referencing, receiving the decision in a story format had a positive effect on
7
Encouraged self-referencing
Not encouraged self-referencing
Informational justice perception
6
5
4
3
2
1
Story format
Analytical format
Fig. 2 Experiment 2: informational justice perception for different
presentation format and self-referencing combinations. Error bars
indicate the standard error
informational justice perception, whereas receiving the
decision in an analytical format had a negative effect on
informational justice perception. As was the case in
Experiment 1, the only significant main effect involved
presentation format, suggesting that a decision to intervene
may be a larger concern when in an analytical format.
Furthermore, narrative transportation mediated the interaction effect. This mediation effect is consistent with the
engrossing effect of stories (Green and Brock 2000). In
summary, the results from Experiment 2 lend support to an
underlying explanation for the effect of presentation format
found in Experiment 1.
General Discussion
The purpose of this research was to examine boundary
conditions of the communication of decisions to intervene
in social media to combat cyber harassment. Specifically I
tested the effect of presentation format—that is, the notion
that decisions to intervene have less of a negative effect on
justice perceptions when the decision is based on a story.
The results from two experiments provide support for the
proposed effect of presentation format. Furthermore, the
findings of both experiments lend support for narrative
transportation as an underlying mechanism for the effect.
Specifically, when users’ identity was violated but they
were transported into a cyber-harassment story, they were
less aware of their personal and social identity and their
subsequent justice perception was more favorable. In
addition, the findings from Experiment 2 suggest that
decisions to intervene are more likely to be perceived as
just when they are based on a story and encourage a selfreferencing strategy. In summary, I extend research on the
dilemma between one user’s right to freely construct an
online identity and another user’s right to protection from
cyber harassment by (1) assessing decisions to intervene
across identity violations, (2) examining the role of presentation format, and (3) examining self-referencing strategy as an explanatory factor.
I tested the model in a social media context with personally relevant decisions. The findings show that there are
boundary conditions of the communication of decisions to
intervene in social media. Given the harmful effects associated with cyber harassment, it is important to better
understand when users perceive decisions to intervene as
just. The results of this research suggest that one caveat to
the universality of the identity violation effect of decisions
to intervene is how damaging to one’s identity a decision is
perceived to be. In general, I found strong support for the
interaction between presentation format and personal and
social identity violations on justice perceptions, such that a
story format had a positive effect on justice perceptions
123
94
when a decision violated personal identity. Indeed, the
effect of identity violation with story format on informational justice perception was non-significant in Experiment
1. Given that the negative effect of the analytical format
involved personal identity violation, it seems that personal
identity violation is more likely to be responsible for the
identity violation effect, at least with the decisions to
intervene in social media contexts examined in this
research. It should be noted that though the effect size of
the interaction was not large, it is consistent with research
on identity violations in business (Mayer et al. 2009).
In addition to the identity violation and presentation
format interaction, this research aimed to extend work on
narrative transportation theory. According to narrative
transportation theory, when readers lose themselves in a
story, their worldview changes to reflect that story (Green
and Brock 2000). Whereas prior research has not actually
assessed consequences personally relevant to readers but
rather has focused on beliefs about the world at large, in the
present research I directly assessed violations of social
media users’ identity and found that when a user is transported into a cyber-harassment story, the presentation of
identity-violating decisions to intervene has little effect on
his or her justice perceptions. Thus, this research extends
narrative transportation theory by highlighting that a story
need not be general to be transporting; rather, when a
cyber-harassment story is transporting, the negative effects
of decisions violating users’ identity are negligible.
Another finding of this research pertains to understanding the explanatory factor for the effect of presentation format on justice perceptions. In Experiment 2, I found
support for the self-referencing strategy; users who
received a decision to intervene presented in an analytical
format and were encouraged to relate the cyber harassment
to themselves were less likely to perceive the decision as
just. These findings are consistent with Burnkrant and
Unnava’s (1989, 1995) findings that self-referencing may
lead people to scrutinize information extensively. However, Escalas (2004, 2007) suggests that under the selfreferencing strategy, people will be motivated to imagine
themselves as the main character in a story. Such selfreferencing would increase the value of intervention if the
story character is a victim of cyber harassment. In line with
Escalas, I found that self-referencing indeed served as an
explanation for why a decision violating users’ personal
identity caused justice to be elevated when based on a
transporting story.
Limitations and Future Research Directions
The results of this research have been interpreted as a
causal model, but the cross-sectional nature of the data
limits the causal interpretations that can be made. It is
123
T. van Laer
possible that participants who had already suffered cyber
harassment experienced more self-referencing and narrative transportation because of their initial receptivity to the
issue rather than the reverse order of effects. However, the
design of Experiment 2 somewhat alleviated this problem
because when the attitude toward interventions was controlled for, the pattern of effects remained the same.
Nonetheless, further research using longitudinal data to
detect changes between pre- and post-exposure perceptions
of justice would be useful to strengthen the case for the
hypothesized order of effects. It should also be noted that
these experiments were conducted in a forced-exposure
context, which may have increased attention to and narrative transportation in the stimuli. The relationships
among presentation format, information-processing strategies, and user perceptions should therefore be further
investigated with methods that more closely reflect a natural social media experience.
Research that delves into the range of information-processing strategies in response to communication in differing presentation formats is also needed. Recent research in
health communication finds that people exposed to a story
format or an analytical format experience similar levels of
self-referencing (Dunlop et al. 2010). However, the current
research suggests that there are different self-referencing
routes, some with a more narrative-like quality than others.
It is highly likely that self-referencing a story format or an
analytical format is a qualitatively different experience, as
their differential effects on perceived justice evidence in
Experiment 2. This idea might be explored within the
social media context, as information-processing strategies
that differ on important dimensions are likely to have differential impacts on user perceptions.
Managerial Implications
Network providers need to be aware that if a decision to
intervene in the network damages a central part of an
individual (i.e., one’s personal identity), they must be
prepared to reformat their communication. That is, when a
decision violates a user’s personal identity, it is unlikely
that providing a case for intervention following a logical
line of argument can remedy the situation. Instead, a
practical managerial application of these findings is that
network providers can assuage the negative effects of
decisions to intervene in social media by presenting users
with a decision based on a transporting story of cyber
harassment.
How can a network provider deal with this catch-22?
According to research in advertising (Phillips and
McQuarrie 2010), a short story can transport readers when
(1) the story contains precise narrative cues such as characters, (2) the story is presented in a story-like structure
The Means to Justify the End
and thus inhibits critical evaluation, (3) the story contains
grotesque and/or pathetic elements, and (4) the readers are
able and motivated to draw from the narrative cues to
transfer the present status displayed in the story into a past–
present–future narrative. By employing accounts of cyber
harassment that meet these criteria and demonstrate that the
victim had no control over the harassment, a network
provider could potentially help maximize narrative
transportation.
In addition, network providers need to understand that
not only the presentation format of decisions to intervene
but also the extent to which social media users experience
the cyber harassment from their own perspectives influence
justice perceptions. If users imagine themselves as the
victim in a cyber-harassment story, it is likely that they will
be transported more and perceive the decision to intervene
as more just. However, if the decision to intervene is presented in an analytical format and users relate the decision
to themselves, it is likely that they will be disenchanted
more. Thus, network providers need to think broadly about
how decisions will encourage self-referencing: only when a
decision to intervene is based on a story will self-referencing affect social media users positively. In that case,
starting with an expression such as ‘‘Imagine yourself…’’
encourages self-referencing (Escalas 2004).
A final implication of this research pertains to understanding the criterion of cyber harassment. Facebook has the
option for users to report friends and mark posts as spam and
Twitter allows users to block and report followers. This
feedback may give network providers some indication of the
issues on which to act. However, given that social media blur
cultural and geographic boundaries, it is difficult for network
providers to discern where to draw the line between benign
teasing and cyber harassment. Consider the following two
examples. When in 2012 Besseres Hannover, a German
right-wing extremist group, was charged with inciting racial
hatred, Twitter blocked access to its account. Yet when in the
same year Hamza Kashgari, a Saudi writer, was deemed a
blasphemer by his country’s authorities for a poem and the
Internet was filled with hate speech against him, network
providers allowed the cyber harassment to continue. Yet
Kashgari felt distinctly uncomfortable and experienced
emotional distress. The situation requires a criterion so that
network providers can identify whether the conversation has
escalated and intervention is warranted. Article 29, Sect. 2,
of the International Bill of Human Rights (1948) may provide such a criterion:
In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone
shall be subject only to such limitations as are
determined by law solely for the purpose of securing
due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements
95
of morality, public order, and the general welfare in a
democratic society.
When cyber harassment disrupts social networks by this
criterion, network providers should not wash their hands in
innocence and ignore such online aggression; instead,
paraphrasing Machiavelli, I believe it becomes the network
provider’s responsibility to use the means set out in this
article—protect the user from harm—and put an end to the
online aggression.
Acknowledgments The author gratefully acknowledges the suggestions of Katja Brunk, Ko de Ruyter, Joëlle Vanhamme, and Martin
Wetzels on a previous version of this article.
Appendix
Informational Justice Perception
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The network provider has been candid in his communications with you.
The network provider has explained the procedures
thoroughly.
The network provider’s explanations regarding the
procedures were reasonable.
The network provider has communicated details in a
timely manner.
The network provider has seemed to tailor his
communications to your specific needs.
Narrative Transportation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
While I was reading the wall post, I could easily
picture the events in it taking place.
While I was reading the wall post, activity going on
in the room around me was on my mind. (reverse
coded)
I could picture myself in the scene of the events
described in the wall post.
I was mentally involved in the wall post while
reading it.
After finishing the wall post, I found it easy to put it
out of my mind. (reverse coded)
I wanted to learn how the wall post ended.
The wall post affected me emotionally.
I found myself thinking of ways the wall post could
have turned out differently.
I found my mind wandering while reading the wall
post. (reverse coded)
The events in the wall post are relevant to my
everyday life.
The events in the wall post have changed my life.
123
96
12.
T. van Laer
While reading the wall post I had a vivid image of the
victim(s).
Social Identification
1.
2.
3.
Being a [social network site name] user is a big part of
my identity.
Being a [social network site name] user is important to
me.
I feel proud to be a part of the [social network site
name] family.
15.
16.
17.
18.
I would prefer a task that is intellectual, difficult, and
important to one that is somewhat important but does
not require much thought.
I feel relief rather than satisfaction after completing a
task that required a lot of mental effort. (reverse
coded)
It is enough for me that something gets the job done; I
do not care how or why it works. (reverse coded)
I usually end up deliberating about issues even when
they do not affect me personally.
Reported Identity Violation
Fantasy Absorption
1.
2.
3.
If I wish, I can imagine (or daydream) some things so
vividly that they hold my attention in the way a good
movie or story does.
I can tell a story with elaborations to make it sound
better and then have the elaboration seem as real to me
as the actual incident, or almost so.
I am sometimes able to forget about my present self
and get absorbed in a fantasy that I am someone else.
Personal Identity Violation
1.
2.
3.
4.
Need for Cognition
1. I would prefer complex to simple problems.
2. I like to have the responsibility of handling a
situation that requires a lot of thinking.
3. Thinking is not my idea of fun. (reverse coded)
4. I would rather do something that requires little
thought than something that is sure to challenge my
thinking abilities. (reverse coded)
5. I try to anticipate and avoid situations where there is
likely a chance I will have to think in depth about
something. (reverse coded)
6. I find satisfaction in deliberating hard and for long
hours.
7. I only think as hard as I have to. (reverse coded)
8. I prefer to think about small, daily projects to longterm ones. (reverse coded)
9. I like tasks that require little thought once I have
learned them. (reverse coded)
10. The idea of relying on thought to make my way to the
top appeals to me.
11. I really enjoy a task that involves coming up with
new solutions to problems.
12. Learning new ways to think does not excite me very
much. (reverse coded)
13. I prefer my life to be filled with puzzles that I must
solve.
14. The notion of thinking abstractly is appealing to me.
123
I feel like the decision that the network provider made
violated some of my personal identity.
The decision that the network provider made goes
against things that are central (i.e., very important) to
my personal identity.
I feel that the network provider’s decision violated
something that is very important to my personal
identity.
The network provider’s decision disregarded some
things that I value and that are a part of my personal
identity.
Social Identity Violation
5.
6.
7.
8.
I feel the decision that the network provider made is
damaging to the [social network site name] users.
The decision that the network provider made goes
against [social network site name] users.
I feel that the network provider’s decision violated
something that is very important to [social network site
name] users.
The network provider’s decision disregarded some
things that I value and that are a part of my identity as
a [social network site name] user.
Storytelling
1.
2.
3.
4.
The main story character experiences an inciting
incident.
There is a mundane presentation of the self in
everyday life of a main story character in the story.
The main story character found the wall post engages
in actions to achieve goals.
The wall post presents a story that informs about
conscious and/or unconscious thoughts of the main
story character.
The Means to Justify the End
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
The wall post presents a story about how personal
evolution or change in the life of the main story
character occurs.
The wall post describes a world of personal block that
does/may prevent goal attainment.
The wall post has a beginning, middle, and end.
The wall post presents a main story character in clearcut situations.
The wall post has a main story character who offers a
lesson learned.
Attitude Toward Interventions
I think interventions are in general….
1.
2.
3.
4.
bad—good.
wise—unwise. (reverse coded)
pleasant—unpleasant. (reverse coded)
negative—positive.
Reported Self-referencing
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
To what extent did you think about your experiences
with cyber harassment?
To what extent did you think what it would be like to
be harassed in social media?
To what extent were you reminded of your own
experiences with cyber harassment?
To what extent did you believe that the wall post
seemed to be written with you in mind?
To what extent did you believe that the wall post
related to you personally?
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