臉書好友關係連結與指定求助對象訊息對利他意願之影響

Abstract

現今台灣社會福利機構面臨募款困難、人員流失與缺少資訊等困境，因此如何快速有效地運用低成本的募款傳播途徑，關係著社福機構的發展。社群媒體－臉書，擁有強大的社會資本與社群好友間連結性，使社福機構紛紛運用此媒介進行傳播。美國知名的「冰桶挑戰」，即是透過臉書病毒式的行銷模式及標記（tag）熟悉好友的連結方式，在短時間內，引起社會大眾關注，並募集到大量資金幫助漸凍人症患者。因此，本研究好奇，臉書使用者，若面對自己較熟悉、連結性較高的朋友所發佈的求助訊息時，真的能引發其助人意願嗎？當臉書使用者看到自己「被標記」並要求幫助他人時，其助人意願為何？又或者當自己被熟悉、或不熟悉朋友標記時，其助人意願是否有所不同？

因此，本研究透過2（高/低連結）x 2（有/無被標記）實驗法進行設計，請受測者觀看完虛擬的臉書網站後，立即填寫問卷。網站首先會請受測者填寫姓名及六個熟悉到不熟悉的朋友名單，系統會隨機設定受測者的姓名有無被標記、隨機地從朋友名單中挑選一個進行求助訊息的po文，因此不同受測者們會分配到四種不同的實驗情境。

研究樣本以交通大學的200名學生為主，問卷內容主要詢問連結程度、利他意願與資訊分享行為等。透過雙因子變異數分析結果得知，「連結程度」與「標記朋友」會影響臉書使用者的利他意願與資訊分享行為。因此，臉書中好友的「連結程度」與「標記朋友」確實能夠增加臉書使用者的利他意願，此結果亦可供社福機構作為募款之參考。

Social welfare organizations face many challenges, including difficulties in funding, loss of members, and lack of information transparency, etc. in Taiwan. It seems to suggest that the establishment of an effective, open, and communicative fund-raising mode is necessary for substantial survival and future development. Facebook, which is a popular online social network site with high link, large social capital, and low cost, may be a new media to enable social welfare fundraising efficiently. For example, the Ice Bucket Challenge, went viral on Facebook to win public awareness and charitable donations to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) charities soared. In just a few weeks, it has become a major fundraising coup for patients and organizations with ALS. Do the self-evaluated connectedness and tag’s application in Facebook, make this Ice Bucket Challenge successfully? Therefore, this study aims to explore the effects of the connectedness and tag in facebook on the users’ altruistic intentions. In this study, the connectedness and tag are the independent variables, and the altruistic intention is the dependent variable, a laboratory experiment with a 2 (high/low connectedness) x 2 (tag/ without tag)design was constructed. FB users are requested to fill in a questionnaire after they involve in a simulated FB website and see the help seeking context.

FB users were firstly requested to supply six names. FB scenario website would automatically picked up one out of six randomly to appear in FB scenario website. And the tag condition is designed to either tag a FB user’s name or not. The context appeared in FB is about help seeking to social welfare organizations from one picked-up friend.

The definition of the connectedness is the feeling of belonging to a social group and implies the creation of bonding relationships. In order to know how connectedness the picked-up friend to the FB users, the measurement of four questions are developed (van Baren et al., 2002). The questionnaire is designed by a 5-point Likert scale. According to the score, those been picked-up friends’ connectedness with FB users’ are classified into high and low two levels. The definition of altruistic intention is that someone is willing help and care for the beneficiary and the social welfare organizations (developed by Batson, 1987; Wolfe, 1998). The scale included seven questions.

In this study, a convenient sampling was used, and 200 undergraduate students were collected from the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. We have carried out descriptive statistics, reliability, validity, regression, and two-way ANOVA to verify the hypotheses. The research results indicate that the connectedness and tag do have positive effect on the FB users’ altruistic intension. And the interaction effect of connectedness with tag on altruistic intension is also significant. Therefore, the connectedness and tag in FB do play important roles in increasing users’ altruistic intentions and help social welfare organizations fund-raising. Further suggestions are given.