ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B
主办:中国心理学会
   中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

心理学报 ›› 2018, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (2): 226-234.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.00226

• • 上一篇    下一篇

 帖子主题特征对虚拟社区知识分享行为的影响: 旁观者效应的视角

 黄 凤1;  丁 倩2;  魏 华2;  洪建中3   

  1.  (1合肥工业大学党委学生工作部, 合肥 230009) (2信阳师范学院教育科学学院, 信阳 464000) (3华中师范大学心理学院, 武汉 430079)
  • 发布日期:2017-12-26 出版日期:2018-02-25
  • 通讯作者: 丁倩, E-mail: psydingqian@163.com; 洪建中, E-mail: jhong@mail.ccnu.edu.cn
  • 基金资助:
     信阳师范学院‘南湖学者奖励计划’青年项目(Nanhu Scholars Program for Young Scholars of XYNU), 华中师范大学中央高校基本科研业务费重大培育项目(CCNU14Z02004), 华中师范大学中央高校基本科研业务费资助项目(CCNU15A060142)。

 Effects of post thematic characteristics on knowledge sharing in the virtual community: The bystander effect perspective

 HUANG Feng1; DING Qian2; WEI Hua2; HONG Jianzhong3   

  1.  (1 Department of Students' Affairs, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China) (2 College of Education Science, Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang 464000, China) (3 School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China)
  • Online:2017-12-26 Published:2018-02-25
  • Contact: DING Qian, E-mail: psydingqian@163.com; 洪建中, E-mail: jhong@mail.ccnu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
     

摘要:  虚拟社区中存在着明显的不平等现象——90%的用户不参与知识分享, 这可能与虚拟社区知识分享中的旁观者效应有关。本研究通过3个情境实验探究了虚拟社区知识分享中存在的旁观者效应以及帖子主题特征的调节作用。结果发现, 虚拟社区知识分享中存在旁观者效应, 且帖子主题的紧急程度和具体程度对旁观者效应起调节作用。即旁观者人数较多时, 个体的知识分享数量显著少于只有1个或不存在旁观者的情境; 而在帖子主题比较具体的情况下, 旁观者人数对个体知识分享数量的作用不再显著; 在帖子主题比较紧急的情况下, 旁观者人数对个体知识分享数量的作用则出现反转。研究结果表明, 虚拟社区知识分享中存在旁观者效应, 通过操纵帖子主题的紧急性和具体性可以在一定程度上缓解甚至改变该旁观者效应。

关键词: 虚拟社区, 知识分享数量, 旁观者效应, 帖子主题特征

Abstract:  One of the major challenges in fostering a virtual community is the supply of knowledge, more specifically, the willingness and behavior to share knowledge with other members. Most virtual communities exhibited the participation inequality phenomenon that 90% of users were lurkers who never contributed, 9% contributed a little, and 1% contributed most of the messages (Nielsen, 2006). The bystander effect — the influence of the lurkers on other virtual community users’ knowledge sharing behavior, however, is very common but under-investigated. We proposed that the bystander effect would hinder knowledge sharing in virtual communities. Moreover, it was hypothesized that the bystander effect would decrease when the level of emergency and concreteness of posts thematic in virtual communities increased. Three situational experiments were conducted to examine the hypotheses. Experiment 1 studied the bystander effect on knowledge sharing in virtual communities using a one-factor between-subjects design. One-hundred twenty-one university students participated in the experiment. Experiment 2 examined the moderation effect of the emergency of posts thematic. A total of 177 university students participated in an experiment with a 2 (Number of bystanders: 1 vs. 54) × 2 (Emergency level of posts thematic: urgent vs. not urgent) between-subjects design. Experiment 3 examined the moderation effect of the concreteness of posts thematic. A total of 136 university students participated in an experiment with a 2 (Number of bystanders: 1 vs. 54) × 2 (Concreteness level of posts thematic: concrete vs. not concrete) between-subjects design. The results of these three experiments provided support for our hypothesis: (1) There was a bystander effect in the virtual community knowledge sharing: participants in the fewer-bystander (0 or 1) condition shared more knowledge in the virtual community than the more-bystander (14 or 54) condition. (2) Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 indicated that the bystander effect could be relieved or even reversed if the posts thematic appeared to be urgent or concrete. In the non-urgent or non-concrete condition, the classic bystander effect was found. Participants in the 1-bystander condition shared knowledge significantly more than participants in the 54-bystander condition. But when the posts thematic were made to be urgent, the bystander effect was reversed: Participants in the 1-bystander condition posted fewer messages than in the 54-bystander condition (Experiment 2). Similarly, when the posts thematic were made concrete, the bystander effect was relieved: In the 1-bystander condition, participants shared the same quantity of knowledge as in the 54-bystander condition (Experiment 3). The theoretical contributions and managerial implications of our findings were discussed. First, we broadened the understanding of bystander effect in virtual community knowledge sharing, which supports the social influence model and the non-linear relationship between the number of bystanders and knowledge sharing behaviors. Second, we demonstrated that changing the emergency and the concreteness of posts thematic could effectively change the bystander effect in virtual community knowledge sharing. This was an empirical evidence for the arousal: cost-reward model and the social influence theory. Third, results offered critical insights for managers. To change participation inequality and promote knowledge sharing, it is advised that managers should undo displaying the number of lurkers and ask users to concretely describe their questions with details in virtual community.

Key words:  virtual community, knowledge sharing, bystander effect, post thematic characteristics

中图分类号: