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The unconscious side of Facebook: Do online social network profiles leak cues to users’ implicit motive dispositions?

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Abstract

In this study we investigated the links between motive dispositions and online social network (OSN) profile content. We assessed the achievement, affiliation and power motives via self- and peer-report. In addition, we used a projective test and two novel, affect based measures (involving affect ratings and EMG recordings) to assess implicit motives in the three content domains. Two observers independently coded motive-specific OSN content. Results showed that self-reports were linked to OSN content for the power domain. Peer-reports and measures of implicit motives were positively linked to OSN content across motive domains. In most cases, measures of implicit motives were still linked to OSN content after adjusting for self- and peer-reports. These results indicate that OSN profiles may leak cues to users’ implicit motives, which neither users themselves nor their peers are aware of. Implications for motive theory, motive assessment, and targeted online advertising will be discussed.

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Notes

  1. We computed a series of independent samples t-tests to explore whether the current subsample differed from the remaining participants in their motive dispositions. Out of the 15 tests (5 measures from each motive domain), only one was significant at the 0.05 level. That is, participants from the current subsample had reduced levels of the EMG-assessed power motive, t(205) = 2.15, p = 0.03. Given the large number of tests, however, it seems possible that this finding might have been a false positive result. In any case, the analyses did not indicate that there is a substantial overall difference between the current subsample and the remaining participants in terms of their motive dispositions. Similarly, there was no age difference between the current subsample and the remaining participants, t(207) = 0.99, p = 0.32. There was a significant difference, however, in terms of sex composition, χ2(1) = 5.15, p = 0.02. Among the current subsample, the proportion of women was larger (78%) than among the remaining participants (61%). Thus, women were over-represented in the subsample.

  2. The study also contained a self-developed IAT to assess motive dispositions. However, IAT scores did not consistently correlate with any other motive measures any other outcome variables in the larger data set, or OSN content. Because this points towards limited validity of the IAT, we refrained from including the IAT in our analyses.

  3. The study also contained the following cues that were coded, but not used as indicators of motive dispositions: number of pictures, number of pictures with person on it, number of received likes in reaction to a post, amount of posts, posts disclosing personal information, funny/cheerful posts, posts with appeal character, amount of likes, likes disclosing personal information, likes with appeal character, likes with funny/cheerful content, and likes concerning other persons.

  4. The positive correlation between EMG assessments of the affiliation motive and affiliative OSN content was also reported in the article by Dufner et al. (2015).

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Grant DE 1662/2-1 from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) allocated to Jaap J. A. Denissen. We thank Birk Hagemeyer for helpful comments of an earlier version of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Leipzig, Neumarkt 9-19, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Michael Dufner

  2. Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

    Ruben C. Arslan

  3. Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Jaap J. A. Denissen

Authors
  1. Michael Dufner
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  2. Ruben C. Arslan
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  3. Jaap J. A. Denissen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Dufner.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 5.

Table 5 Correlations between motive measure and OSN content in the respective domains separately for the two waves (w1/w2)
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Dufner, M., Arslan, R.C. & Denissen, J.J.A. The unconscious side of Facebook: Do online social network profiles leak cues to users’ implicit motive dispositions?. Motiv Emot 42, 79–89 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-017-9663-1

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