Président du jury Azzi, Assaad Elia
Promoteur Douglas, Karen ;Klein, Olivier
Publication Non publié, 2014-06-12
Résumé : | Previous research highlighted that Internet use, in particular online information retrieval and discussions, can facilitate offline collective actions (Boulianne, 2009). Recently, however, the Internet also has been criticized for encouraging low-cost and lowrisk online collective actions—slacktivism—that may have detrimental consequences for groups that aim to achieve a collective purpose (Gladwell, 2010). More precisely, it is argued that actions such as “liking” Facebook pages or posting ingroup-endorsing comments online make users instantly feel good, satisfy their need to act, and derail participation in offline collective actions (Lee & Hsieh, 2013; Morozov, 2009). In my thesis, I assessed this postulation as well as the underlying processes and boundary conditions of the relationship between so-called slacktivist actions and offline collective actions. After introducing a conceptualization of slacktivism as expressive lowthreshold online collective actions, I investigated its influence on offline engagement (Study 1, N = 634; Study 2, N = 76; Study 3, N = 63; Study 4, N = 48). Results indicated that expressive low-threshold online collective actions reduce the willingness to join offline collective actions. This effect was mediated by the satisfaction of group-enhancing motives; members considered the online actions as a substantial contribution to the group's success. The demobilizing impact of expressive low-threshold online collective actions was qualified when members took the online actions in the co-presence of the ingroup, all parties being mutually identifiable (Study 5a, N = 84; Study 5b, N = 99). In this context, obligatory interdependencies between members were enhanced and fostered a spill-over from online to offline collective actions (Study 6, N = 62). |