Viral Internet Challenges: A Study on the Motivations Behind Social Media User Participation

Abstract

Of the many genres of content available, “viral Internet challenge” has become popular in the recent years and the existing research is centered on specific viral Internet challenges only, such as the ice bucket challenge. To address the gap in scientific evidence on the general motivation of the social media users to engage and co-create viral Internet challenges, our study was conducted in the context of popular social media apps in India. Based on a review of literature, a conceptual model was proposed and empirically tested. The influence of personal factors, outward motivations and inner motivations were also mapped in this study. Finally, we also investigated the influence of gender roles we play—specifically masculinity/femininity. It was observed that important drivers of the intent to participate in Internet viral challenges were the respondents’ need to belong to a group, lack of immediacy of rewards and the ability to showcase personal strengths mattered. The association of influencers with the viral challenge significantly increased the likelihood of participation. The most interesting finding was the impact of gender identity in driving participation in viral Internet challenges. Those who identified higher on masculine traits were more likely to display an intent to participate and it was the converse for feminine traits. This effect was independent of the impact of gender. Our analysis suggests an interesting and hitherto unexplored dimension of viral Internet challenges—there is something in them that saliently appeals to our inherent masculinity. This result bears further investigation.