Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Social Psychology of Social Networking


Recent articles about the Facebook redesign, Google Buzz, and Facebook battling back against Google Buzz got me thinking about how the tidal wave of social networking behaviors relate to the social psychology principles we discuss with students.

I'd love to hear how students would answer a question like: "How do social psychology principles influence on-line social networking behaviors?" Principles like diffusion of responsibility, norms of reciprocity, social facilitation, conformity, etc. obviously interact in powerful ways in online communities, and I haven't read anything great that explores these forces in this context (although I bet there's a lot of good analysis out there). If anyone tries this with your students, please holler back in the comments section and let us know what they said!

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