Online Social Support via Avatar Communication Buffers Harmful Effects of Offline Bullying Victimization

ICWSM 2022の発表スライド
論文: https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/19351

Transcript

1. Online Social Support via Avatar Communication Buffers Harmful Effects of Offline Bullying Victimization 2022/06/07 ICWSM@Atranta+Online CyberAgent, Inc. All Rights Reserved Masanori Takano1* and Kenji Yokotani2 1CyberAgent, Inc. 2Tokushima University *takano_masanori@cyberagent.co.jp 1
2. Online Social Support nOnline Social Support would act as an auxiliary for social relationships in the physical world nConnecting All Over the World • Increasing potential friends nAnonymity of the Internet • Reducing the fear of rejection risk ne.g. • Sexual minorities recovered self-esteem through anonymous communication communities on newsgroups • Anonymity drives self-disclose their experiments on Reddit 2 Bullied experience
3. Nonverbal Communication on Online Social Support nAvatar enables rich nonverbal communication. This provides feelings similar to in the physical world. • Facial expression • Gesture and Action • Real Time Communication • Co-presence nThese drive • emotional communication [Mehrabian 1970, Manusov+ 2006] • cooperative behavior in MMO-RPG [OʼConnor+ 2015] • better social support in Second Life [Green-Hamann+ 2011] 3
4. Research Questions n Research Questions 1. How does online social support via avatar communication work against bullying victimization? • The types of online social support that are effective for offline social support and under which circumstances, are unclear. • We investigated the role of online social support via avatars, focusing on bullying victimization. 2. How does behavioral restriction due to COVID-19 affect bullying victims' mental health and what are the effects of social support on bullying victims? • Behavioral restrictions due to COVID-19 is a serious problem for bullying victims because the harmful effects of bullying victimization on mental health. • On the other hand, such behavioral restrictions mean bullying victims can easily avoid the perpetrators and stressors. • We investigated the effects of behavioral restriction on the mental health and social support for bullying victims. 3. How do online social relationships facilitate online social support? • The amount of social support depends on social relationships. • Close relationships provide rich social support, and many relationships offer opportunities to receive social support. • We investigated online social relationships facilitating online social support. 4
5. Research Questions n Research Questions 1. How does online social support via avatar communication work against bullying victimization? • The types of online social support that are effective for offline social support and under which circumstances, are unclear. • We investigated the role of online social support via avatars, focusing on bullying victimization. 2. How does behavioral restriction due to COVID-19 affect bullying victims' mental health and what are the effects of social support on bullying victims? • Behavioral restrictions due to COVID-19 is a serious problem for bullying victims because the harmful effects of bullying victimization on mental health. • On the other hand, such behavioral restrictions mean bullying victims can easily avoid the perpetrators and stressors. • We investigated the effects of behavioral restriction on the mental health and social support for bullying victims. 3. How do online social relationships facilitate online social support? • The amount of social support depends on social relationships. • Close relationships provide rich social support, and many relationships offer opportunities to receive social support. • We investigated online social relationships facilitating online social support. 5
6. Research Questions n Research Questions 1. How does online social support via avatar communication work against bullying victimization? • The types of online social support that are effective for offline social support and under which circumstances, are unclear. • We investigated the role of online social support via avatars, focusing on bullying victimization. 2. How does behavioral restriction due to COVID-19 affect bullying victims' mental health and what are the effects of social support on bullying victims? • Behavioral restrictions due to COVID-19 is a serious problem for bullying victims because the harmful effects of bullying victimization on mental health. • On the other hand, such behavioral restrictions mean bullying victims can easily avoid the perpetrators and stressors. • We investigated the effects of behavioral restriction on the mental health and social support for bullying victims. 3. How do online social relationships facilitate online social support? • The amount of social support depends on social relationships. • Close relationships provide rich social support, and many relationships offer opportunities to receive social support. • We investigated online social relationships facilitating online social support. 6
7. Research Questions n Research Questions 1. How does online social support via avatar communication work against bullying victimization? • The types of online social support that are effective for offline social support and under which circumstances, are unclear. • We investigated the role of online social support via avatars, focusing on bullying victimization. 2. How does behavioral restriction due to COVID-19 affect bullying victims' mental health and what are the effects of social support on bullying victims? • Behavioral restrictions due to COVID-19 is a serious problem for bullying victims because the harmful effects of bullying victimization on mental health. • On the other hand, such behavioral restrictions mean bullying victims can easily avoid the perpetrators and stressors. • We investigated the effects of behavioral restriction on the mental health and social support for bullying victims. 3. How do online social relationships facilitate online social support? • The amount of social support depends on social relationships. • Close relationships provide rich social support, and many relationships offer opportunities to receive social support. • We investigated online social relationships facilitating online social support. 7
8. Approach n Approach • (RQ 1 and 2) Online questionnaire survey for avatar communication app users for social support and mental health with/without behavioral restriction due to COVID-19 • 1st wave (during the behavioral restriction): N=3288 • 2nd wave (after the behavioral restriction): N=758 • (RQ 3) Evaluating online ego-network structure and online social support • We analyzed the relationships between online social support and ego-networks (constructed by communication logs) n Avatar Communication App: Pigg Party • OS: iOS and Android • Language: Japanese • How to Play • Users design their own avatar. • They create their own room. • They chat own room or othersʼ room (with friends and/or strangers). 8 26
9. Summary of Results nRQ1: Online social support effects • Online social support improved the mental health of Pigg Party players • Particularly, offline bullying victims. • The expectations of instrumental support are more important than emotional support (empathy, etc.) • That is, it improves players' mental health that they think “my online friends would help me if I get into trouble.” nRQ2: Behavioral Restrictions and Bullying Victims • Mitigating the behavioral restriction due to COVID-19 reinforced the harmful effect of offline bullying. • This is because victims had to meet their perpetrators. • In such situation, online social support is more important. nRQ3: Ego-network structures and online social support • Belonging to closely connected online communities enhances online instrumental support 9
10. Conclusion n Summary • We showed that online social support can help offline bullying victims. • When the risk of offline bullying increases, e.g., after mitigating behavioral restrictions and after long vacations, online social support becomes essential for victims' mental health. → Online social support can complement insufficient offline social resources because players can express their emotions via their avatars • Such support can be reinforced by facilitating online social relationships. n Suggestion • Online avatar communication may be suitable for helping victims. • The mental care of bullying victims and bullying prevention are more important immediately after mitigating behavioral restrictions and long vacations than during ordinary times. n For application providers • Promoting online social support is also beneficial for application providers. • This can increase user satisfaction and happiness because providing social support improves the mental health of recipients and sources. • This may produce a comfortable society for users in the virtual world, which also allows application providers to acquire more users. 10