Effects of problem characteristics on the online helping behavior of shy individuals

The present research examined how problem characteristics might influence the online helping behavior of shy individuals. Three hundred undergraduates were recruited and assessed using the College Students Shyness Scale. According to the scores, 68 high-shy students and 68 low-shy students were selected to participate in simulated experiments designed to determine the influence of the shyness level, the presence of a foreseeable reward, the complexity of the problem, and the urgency of the problem influence online helping behavior. The results showed that (a) High-shy individuals tended to exhibit online helping behavior more for low-complexity problems and high-urgency problems than for high-complexity problems and low-urgency problems. (b) Low-shy individuals always exhibited online helping behavior less for high-complexity problems and when no reward was offered than they did for low-complexity problems and when a reward was offered. (c) High-shy individuals showed online helping behavior more than low-shy individuals did for no-reward, high-complexity problems and high-urgency problems. (d) Participants online had higher shyness scores for showing helping behavior than those offline. We study the individual differences of online helping behavior from the perspective of shyness.Individuals who voluntarily filled out the shyness questionnaire online scored higher than those individuals offline.There is a significant difference in the online helping behavior between high-shy and low-shy individuals.The effect of the characteristic of problems on the online helping behavior varies between high-shy and low-shy individuals.

[1]  R. A. Davis,et al.  A cognitive-behavioral model of pathological Internet use , 2001, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[2]  Andrea Chester,et al.  Shyness and the internet: Social problem or panacea? , 2008, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[3]  Philip G. Zimbardo,et al.  Shyness: What it is What to Do About it , 1977 .

[4]  Wei Hua,et al.  Shyness and Internet Use , 2013 .

[5]  Philip G. Zimbardo,et al.  Shyness as a clinical condition: The Stanford model. , 2001 .

[6]  Patti M. Valkenburg,et al.  Developing a Model of Adolescent Friendship Formation on the Internet , 2005, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[7]  K. Durkin,et al.  Shyness and Computer-Mediated Communication: A Self-Presentational Theory Perspective , 2004 .

[8]  Carlos Alberto Ochoa Ortíz Zezzatti,et al.  Never forget, whom was my ancestors: A cross-cultural analysis from Yonsei (fourth-generation Nikkei) in four societies using Data Mining , 2014, ArXiv.

[9]  Paul M. Brunet,et al.  Are Shy Adults Really Bolder Online? It Depends on the Context , 2008, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[10]  David Lester,et al.  Shyness, Internet Use, and Personality , 2007, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[11]  J. Bailenson,et al.  The Proteus Effect: The Effect of Transformed Self-Representation on Behavior , 2007 .

[12]  Jeremy N. Bailenson,et al.  The Proteus Effect , 2009, Commun. Res..

[13]  W. Ray Crozier.  Shyness and Embarrassment: Social psychological perspectives on shyness, embarrassment, and shame , 1990 .

[14]  N. Eisenberg,et al.  Relations of shyness and low sociability to regulation and emotionality. , 1995, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[15]  周超,et al.  The Proteus Effect in Virtual Reality Social Environments: Influence of Situation and Shyness , 2015 .

[16]  Jeremy N. Bailenson,et al.  The embodiment of sexualized virtual selves: The Proteus effect and experiences of self-objectification via avatars , 2013, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[17]  Steven Muncer,et al.  Internet Communication: An Activity that Appeals to Shy and Socially Phobic People? , 2006, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[18]  Miranda S. Sheeks,et al.  Shyness, Sociability, and the Use of Computer-Mediated Communication in Relationship Development , 2007, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[19]  Craig Ross,et al.  The Influence of Shyness on the Use of Facebook in an Undergraduate Sample , 2009, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[20]  Steve Page,et al.  Developing a Model , 2010 .

[21]  John Suler,et al.  To Get What You Need: Healthy and Pathological Internet Use , 1999, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[22]  Arturo Hernández Aguirre,et al.  Analysis of Cyber-bullying in a virtual social networking , 2011, 2011 11th International Conference on Hybrid Intelligent Systems (HIS).

[23]  Tamyra Pierce,et al.  Social anxiety and technology: Face-to-face communication versus technological communication among teens , 2009, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[24]  Louis Leung,et al.  Shyness and Locus of Control as Predictors of Internet Addiction and Internet Use , 2004, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..