{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,2]],"date-time":"2025-08-02T17:27:32Z","timestamp":1754155652897,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,3,6]],"date-time":"2017-03-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1488758400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["ITP"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2017,3,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The bystander effect is one of the most well researched and replicated phenomena in social psychology. It repeatedly shows that the presence of other people inhibits the impulse to help due to the concept of diffusion of responsibility. Recently, researchers have studied this phenomenon online in the context of e-mails, internet chat rooms, and discussion forums. The results provide evidence that the presence of \u201cvirtual\u201d others decreases the likelihood of helping behavior. Personalization is another factor that strongly influences helping behavior. Referring to a person by name when soliciting help request increases the likelihood of receiving assistance. Yet, with the most popular activity on the internet now being social media, it would be beneficial to know if diffusion of responsibility and personalization also occurs in this part of the online world. The paper aims to discuss these issues.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>To investigate the validity of diffusion of responsibility as well as personalization in a social media context, 176 participants sent out one private Facebook message soliciting help in the form of an online survey to one, three, six, or nine of their Facebook friends. They greeted their friend(s) by name or just said \u201cHi\u201d or \u201cHi all.\u201d<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Responses to the survey provided strong support for personalizing the greeting, but did not support the theory of diffusion of responsibility.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Practical implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>This study has many practical implications. For one, with social media being used not only by individuals but by businesses and industries, it is important to know the most effective way in eliciting help and responses from individuals. It is also beneficial for researchers as well who are increasingly using social media as a recruitment tool to find participants. This study suggests that personalizing salutations is an effective way of eliciting more responses and raises important research questions about the validity of diffusion of responsibility in online environments.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>This study also has originality and value in that it provides a start for understanding helping behavior in a social media environment as well as applying relevant social psychological theories to online behavior. It highlights the similarities as well as differences between offline and online human behavior as well as highlights the importance of personalization in online requests.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/itp-02-2015-0042","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,5,10]],"date-time":"2017-05-10T03:58:18Z","timestamp":1494388698000},"page":"71-80","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Group size and personalization\u2019s effect on Facebook message response rates"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"30","author":[{"given":"Jane-Marie","family":"Fatkin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Terry C.","family":"Lansdown","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"issue":"1","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"31","DOI":"10.2307\/2786867","article-title":"Personality and social network involvement as predictors of helping behavior in everyday life","volume":"53","year":"1990","journal-title":"Social Psychology Quarterly"},{"issue":"5","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"507","DOI":"10.1016\/S0747-5632(02)00007-9","article-title":"Private e-mail requests and the diffusion of responsibility","volume":"18","year":"2002","journal-title":"Computers in Human Behavior"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"171","DOI":"10.1207\/s15324834basp2702_8","article-title":"Electronic helping behavior: the virtual presence of others makes a difference","volume":"27","year":"2005","journal-title":"Basic and Applied Social Psychology"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref004","first-page":"27","article-title":"MySpace and Facebook: identifying dimensions and uses of gratifications for friend networking","volume":"8","year":"2010","journal-title":"Individual Differences Research"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref005","first-page":"39","article-title":"Reading romance: the impact Facebook rituals can have on a romantic relationship","volume":"1","year":"2010","journal-title":"Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology"},{"year":"2005","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref006","article-title":"Semantics-aware malware detection"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"341","DOI":"10.1089\/cpb.2008.0226","article-title":"Information disclosure and Facebook: are they two sides of the same coin or two different processes?","volume":"12","year":"2009","journal-title":"CyberPsychology & Behavior"},{"volume-title":"Influence: How and Why People Agree to Things","year":"1984","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref008"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref029","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"377","DOI":"10.1037\/h0025589","article-title":"Bystander intervention in emergencies: diffusion of responsibility","volume":"8","year":"1968","journal-title":"Journal of Personality and Social Psychology"},{"issue":"5","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1048","DOI":"10.1109\/72.788645","article-title":"Support vector machines for spam categorization","volume":"10","year":"1999","journal-title":"IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref010","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1143","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x","article-title":"The benefits of Facebook \u2018friends:\u2019 social capital and college students\u2019 use of online social network sites","volume":"12","year":"2007","journal-title":"Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication"},{"year":"1998","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref822","article-title":"On-line trail to an off-line killing"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref012","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"588","DOI":"10.1093\/poq\/nfi053","article-title":"Effects of personal salutations in e-mail invitations to participate in a web survey","volume":"69","year":"2005","journal-title":"Public Opinion Quarterly"},{"volume-title":"Essentials of Social Psychology","year":"2010","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref013"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref014","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1372","DOI":"10.1016\/j.chb.2004.12.011","article-title":"Personalized salutation, power of sender and response rates to web-based survey","volume":"23","year":"2007","journal-title":"Computers in Human Behavior"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2020120810501391700_ref015","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"104","DOI":"10.1057\/ejis.2009.46","article-title":"My social networking profile: copy, resemblance, or simulacrum? 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