Dongyoung Sohn
dysohn@mail.utexas.edu
Department of Advertising
College of Communication
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas 78712
And
John D. Leckenby
Everett D. Collier Centennial Chair in Communication
john.leckenby@mail.utexas.edu
Department of Advertising
College of Communication
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas 78712
Paper presented
at the 2001 Annual Conference
the American Academy of Advertising
Salt Lake City, Utah
March 2001
Abstract
This study examines the social-psychological
factor of locus of control in relation to perceived interactivity on the Internet
WWW. To this point in the study of
this new medium and concept of interactivity, most social science research
has studied the psychological dimension of the individual’s relation to the
Internet. This research focuses on
the individual’s relation to group experience in relation to perceptions of
the Internet through use of the locus of control concept.
Results of the study of 121 individuals recruited online and who completed
an online questionnaire show that perceived interactivity of the Internet
can be partially explained by the locus of control variable.
Those internal in their orientation to the world tend to view the Internet
as more interactive than those external in their orientation. In addition, perceived reliability of the Web and time spent using
the Web are direct, powerful predictors of perceived interactivity. Implications
for theory and practice are provided.
The Internet has become one of the most influential
media in modern society within a remarkably short period. In particular, its
potential as an advertising medium has been recognized as one of the most
valuable aspects of the Internet. Why are people wildly excited about the
Internet? One of the critical reasons might be the unique characteristic of
the Internet as an “interactive” medium, compared with the other mass media.
Its interactive features may provide people with vast opportunities to communicate
with each other beyond time and spatial restrictions (Miller, 1996).
In addition, the interactive characteristic of the Internet appears to attribute more power to control the communication processes to the Internet users. It is quite true that people not only can be actively involved in communication processes through the Internet, but they also have a wide range of freedom and opportunities to choose what they want.
The uses-and -gratifications perspective has been a useful theoretical framework for Internet communication studies, and has provided researchers with fundamental assumptions about user activities, e.g., the Internet user as an active communicator. Several contemporary communication and advertising researchers have already applied the uses-and-gratifications perspective to the study of new media, including the Internet (Jeffres and Atkin, 1996; Eighmey, 1997; Korgaonkar and Wolin, 1999; Donthu and Garcia, 1999).
Nonetheless, it seems that the relationships between the Internet and its users have been somewhat oversimplified. Most studies based on the concept of active media users have concentrated on asking about respondents’ internal needs or psychological motives for Internet usage, while disregarding the fact that media usage is a “socially conditioned action,” which cannot be explained by individual needs or motives alone. This trend seems to result from the underlying assumption of the uses-and-gratifications theory: the concept of active media users who make rational choices independently.
The current study examined
the relationships between Internet usage and the social contexts to which
people belong. Using a social-psychological factor (locus of control), the
influences of social contexts on Internet usage behavior, the perceived interactivity
of the Web, the perceived reliability of commercial information from Internet
advertising, and attitude toward Internet advertising in general were studied.
Literature Review
Critiques Revisited: The Media User in A
Social Vacuum
According to Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch (1974), the ideal user shown
in uses-and-gratifications theory is an active and self-reliant gratification-seeker.
This person’s attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors are not influenced or
manipulated directly by any content or message from the mass media. “The media
can have little or no impact on persons who have no use for them; that media
fare is selected rather than imposed, and that particular media offerings
are chosen because they are meaningful to those who choose them”(Johnstone,
1974, p. 35). The active users are able not only to recognize their internal
needs by themselves, but also to use media consciously to satisfy their needs.
These people selectively perceive and respond to the messages from the mass
media, as well as responding to their individual needs. From this perspective,
psychological motives including needs and gratifications would be central
problems of research.
Although this perspective enables researchers to know not only the media users’ explicit behavioral patterns, but also the qualitative aspects of media usage, the users assumed in the uses-and-gratifications perspective are essentially “structureless.” From this perspective, users as active participants in communication processes seem to be isolated from the social relationships around them. In other words, this perspective locates media users in a “social vacuum.” Elliott(1974) pointed out the abstract concept of the media user in the uses-and-gratifications perspective:
This lack of social theory contributes to another characteristic of the approach[uses-and-gratifications approach], its static-abstraction… The sampling and analysis techniques used ensure that respondents are wrenched from their social situation, from ongoing social process, from the groups and subcultures that provide a framework of meaning for their activities, especially in a symbolic field like media consumption.(p. 252)
Although there were some pioneering approaches focusing on social variables (e.g. Johnstone, 1974), it is true that most uses and gratifications studies pay great attention to psychological motivations and reduce the discussion of the socio-demographic conditions of media users to a superficial and descriptive level.
As a result, the Internet studies based on the uses-and-gratifications perspective have neglected that users’ psychological motivations might be situated in or constructed by surrounding social forces. Recent Internet studies based on the uses-and-gratifications perspective seem to presuppose that the users have pure “one-to-one” relationships with the medium, and to separate both of them totally from the encompassing interpersonal and social structural environments. Despite the fact that the uses-and-gratifications perspectives began with criticizing the concept of the audience as mass, the media users in recent Internet studies based on this perspective have been regarded as an anonymous “mass” that consists of individuals who are totally atomized and fragmented, and have no social ties among them.
Recent Uses-and-Gratifications Research on the Internet
Bellamy and Hanewicz(1999) pointed out this absence of sociological consideration in the communication field: “The communication discipline has provided major players in the development of theories and research methodologies applicable to Internet social dynamics. Curiously absent are studies promoting the sociological imagination”(p. 3). In the case of the Internet, the absence of sociological studies is more apparent than in other studies dealing with traditional mass media.
The Internet has been regarded as one of the highly individualized media. People can get information, products, or services beyond time and spatial limitations, and marketers can provide customers with highly customized products, information, and services through the Internet. And the uses-and-gratifications perspective seems to support these personalized characteristics of the Internet. “The uses and gratifications perspective has a long tradition of successful application to a range of new media and related technologies. The approach assumes audience members are active gratification seekers interacting with the media content”(Eighmey, 1997, p. 59). From this perspective, the active users assumed in the uses-and-gratifications perspective play central roles in communication processes with the Internet. The Internet is conceptualized as nothing but an instrument mediating between users and information, products, services, and other people. This simplified perspective enables researchers to define complicated research agendas much more clearly. “The consensus among scholars suggests the uses and gratifications approach is well-suited for studying computer-mediated communication such as Internet use”(Lin, 1999, p. 79).
Based on the simplified perspective, recent studies of Internet usage have converged into psychological research dealing with individuals as a unit of analysis, and the uses-and-gratifications perspective has offered a useful theoretical framework to the researchers. For instance, Eighmey(1997) analyzed users’ perceptions of commercial Websites based on the active, self-reliant concept of the users. Korgaonkar and Wolin(1999) conducted a multivariate analysis of Web usage, and found important psychological factors representing respondents’ gratifications (i.e., social escapism motivation, information motivation, economic motivation, etc.). Lin(1999) studied whether there are interdependent relationships between television usage and online service adoption likelihood, based on the uses-and-gratifications perspective, and found some significant relationships between psychological motives for television or online service and adoption likelihood. Donthu and Garcia(1999) tried to profile Internet shoppers, and understand the differences between Internet shoppers and non-Internet shoppers in terms of motivations, attitudes, and some demographic characteristics, such as income and gender.
Although the research objectives of the studies shown above are markedly different from one another, common characteristics are methodological individualism and the concept of “undersocialized” agents. Granovetter(1985) pointed out the “undersocialized” concept of actors in the neo-classical economic paradigm, and this notion can be applied to the individualistic psychological studies. The “undersocialized” concept prevents researchers from realizing the fact that actions, including media usage, are embedded in social relationships and structures.
Bridging the Gap: Social Aspects of the Psychological Dimension
According to the pioneering work of George Herbert Mead(1934), people communicate by interpreting the symbolic gestures of other people, and their interpretations are always situated in and conditioned by social contexts. To bridge the gap between the individual user and the social contexts, it is crucial to understand the social aspects of the individual’s psychological dimension.
In this study, locus of control was used to partially provide a social context within which the individual operates. ‘Locus of control’ refers to “the extent to which persons perceive contingency relationships between their actions and their outcomes”(MacDonald, 1973, p. 169). The locus of control concept is based on Rotter’s social learning theory (Rotter, 1954). People who tend to believe they can control external circumstances and their lives are referred to as internals, while those who believe their outcomes are controlled by external circumstances are referred to as externals. In other words, those oriented to an external locus of control attribute the power to control their lives to external events, such as fate, luck or other people, while those oriented to an internal locus of control believe they control their own lives. The locus of control concept reflects the internalized social dimension of individuals. This internalized social dimension may condition and moderate the relationships between the Internet and users. In addition, it is also possible to infer that people’s perception of and attitude toward Internet advertising may be mediated by the social characteristics of individuals.
To understand the roles of social-psychological variables, it would be useful to visualize the positions of variables used for advertising and communication research as follows:
Figure 1. Levels of Variable
|
Macro à Micro |
||
|
Structural Interpersonal Intrapersonal |
||
|
Socio-demographic
variables |
Social-psychological
variables |
Attitude Perception Motivation Involvement Emotion |
As shown in
Figure 1, the social-psychological variables may play a major role as a connecting
bridge between individuals and the social dimension to which they belong.
Considering the variables on the interpersonal level would enable advertising
researchers not only to understand the individual psychological dimensions
more comprehensively, but also to extend the theoretical perspective beyond
the level of the individual to the social level.
Hypothesis
According to Cho and Leckenby (1999), there are two dominant ways to define “interactivity”: 1) human - human interactions, and 2) human - message interactions. The first type of interactivity is related to behavioral level interactions, while the second type is involved with the perceptual level of interactions. Considering the second type of interactivity, there are also two sub-constructs popularly employed: designed interactivity and perceived interactivity. Designed interactivity refers to the combination of interactive elements in Websites, while perceived interactivity refers to the level of subjective perception of interactivity. In this study, people’s perceived interactivity relative to Web usage will be examined in relation to locus of control orientations. In addition to this, trust concerning online transaction safety, and attitude toward Internet advertising in general will be examined in relation to locus of control orientations.
Wu (2000) defined perceived interactivity as “the extent to which a person perceives he or she controls over the interaction process, his or her communicative counterpart (a person, a mass-mediated environment, or a computer-mediated environment) personalizes and responds to his or her communicative behavior”(p. 41). He argued that perceived interactivity is an important construct to be measured, because of its consumer-oriented perspective. Based on his argument, it is possible to infer that social aspects of an individual psychological dimension, such as the locus of control, may play a role as an antecedent to people’s perceived interactivity. This suggests the following hypothesis:
H1. People oriented to internal locus of control are likely to have a higher level of perceived interactivity relative to Web surfing in general than those oriented to external locus of control.
In addition to perceived interactivity, trust concerning online transaction safety can be examined in relation to the locus of control orientations. Online transaction safety is one of the most important issues which Internet advertising and the electronic commerce industry face, because consumers’ perception of online transaction safety may be directly related to their purchase intention. Examining factors affecting consumers’ perception of online transaction safety would be useful for understanding the economic behaviors of consumers in the electronic commerce environment. This suggests the following hypothesis:
H2. People oriented to internal locus of control are likely to have
a higher level of trust concerning online transaction safety than those oriented
to external locus of control.
Also, consumers’ attitudes toward Internet advertising can be re-examined within the surrounding social situations. Consumers’ attitudes toward Internet advertising messages and commercial transactions on the WWW may be understood comprehensively by considering social contexts, because the social contexts to which each respondent belongs may moderate the process of building his/her trust in information from Internet advertising and, consequently, his/her decision-making process. Based on the discussions above, the following hypothesis is tested:
H3. People oriented to internal locus of control are
likely to have a more favorable attitude toward Internet advertising than
those oriented to external locus of control.
Methodology
To test the hypotheses shown above,
an online survey using Cold Fusion database technology was employed. Using
CataList, which is a search engine for LISTSERV lists, 90 lists were
found based on six keywords: advertising, marketing, media, Internet, society,
and psychology (these keywords were selected at the authors’ discretion),
and 45 lists were randomly selected from these. A recruiting electronic message
for this online survey was sent via postings in the selected discussion LISTSERV
lists, directing interested parties to the URL of the online questionnaire.
The number of total respondents for this study was 121.
Respondents were asked a series of
questions about Internet usage, perceived interactivity, perceived reliability
of Internet advertising and online transactions, attitude toward Internet
advertising in general, and locus of control orientations (See Appendix).
Perceived interactivity was measured by 7 Likert items with a 5-point scale
(1 = Strongly Disagree, 5 = Strongly Agree). The alpha reliability on this
scale was .67. To measure perceived reliability of Internet advertising and
online transactions, 6 Likert items with a 5-point scale were asked of respondents.
The alpha reliability on this scale was .57. Respondents’ attitudes toward
Internet advertising in general were measured by 11 items with a 7-point scale.
This revealed an alpha reliability of .97. Locus of control was measured by
20 items with a Likert-type 4-point scale developed by James(1957). The alpha
coefficient of the reliability test on this scale was .68. In addition, sociability
was measured by 10 items with a 3-point scale ( 3 = Yes, 2 =Maybe, 1 = No).
The alpha coefficient of the reliability test on this scale was .35. Based
on the results of the alpha reliability tests, locus of control was employed
as the primary social-psychological variable of interest in this study, while
sociability was secondary.
Results
To test the hypotheses shown above, the index scores of locus of control, sociability, perceived interactivity, perceived reliability, and attitude were calculated by summing items, respectively. The items of online transaction safety perception were tested respectively, because combining those items might result in inconsistency (some of the items were related to online transactions, while others were related to Internet advertising in general).
Hypothesis 1 states that people’s perceived interactivity
may be moderated by their locus of control orientations. A between-groups
t-test was used to examine the differences in perceived interactivity between
“internals” and “externals.” To examine differences clearly, the total sample
was divided into three groups, based on the frequencies of locus of control
index score, and the upper third (externals) and lower third (internals) were
compared, excluding the “neutrals” group.
As shown in Table 1.1, in 95 or more samples out of every 100 drawn from the same population as the 83 in this sample, the mean score of perceived interactivity for “internals” is slightly higher than that for “externals.”
Table 1.1. Between-Groups t-test of Perceived Interactivity
|
|
Sample Size |
Mean |
Std. Dev. |
t-value |
|
Internals |
44 |
25.5 |
3.7 |
1.71* |
|
Externals |
39 |
24.1 |
3.9 |
|
Based on the results, it is possible to infer that people oriented to an internal locus of control are likely to have a higher level of perceived interactivity than those oriented to an external locus of control. Hypothesis 1 is supported by the results.
Table 1.2. Between-Groups t-test of Trust Concerning Online Transaction Safety
|
|
Sample Size |
Mean |
Std.Dev. |
t-value |
|
Internals |
44 |
3.6 |
.9 |
1.87* |
|
Externals |
39 |
3.1 |
1.1 |
|
* p £ .05
Hypothesis 2 states that people’s trust concerning
online transaction safety may be influenced by their locus of control orientations.
A between-groups t-test was used to examine the differences in trust relative
to online transaction safety between “internals” and “externals.” Table 1.2
shows that the internals’ mean score of trust relative to online transaction
safety is slightly higher than the mean of the externals. This means that
“internals” have higher trust in online transaction safety than do “externals.”
Based on the results, it is possible to infer that people oriented to an internal
locus of control are likely to be less concerned about online transaction
safety issues than those oriented to an external locus of control. Therefore,
Hypothesis 2 is supported by the results.
Hypothesis 3 states that attitude toward Internet advertising
in general may be moderated by the users’ locus of control orientations. A
between-groups t-test was also used to examine the differences in attitude
toward Internet advertising, between “internals” and “externals.” As shown
in Table 1.3, the mean scores of the attitude index score between “internals”
and “externals” are not significantly different. Therefore, Hypothesis 3 is
not supported by the results.
Table 1.3. Between-Groups t-test of Attitude toward Internet Advertising
|
|
Sample Size |
Mean |
Std.Dev. |
t-value |
|
Internals |
44 |
30.6 |
14.8 |
1.08 |
|
Externals |
39 |
34.4 |
17.0 |
|
A correlation test was used not only to support the hypotheses testing results shown above, but also to reveal the interrelationships between those variables examined in this study. Table 2 shows that there is a statistically significant relationship between locus of control orientations and people’s perceived interactivity. The pearson correlation coefficient (r) between the index score of locus of control orientations and perceived interactivity is - .23, which is significant at p £ .01.
Table 2. Correlation Matrix of Variables
|
|
Attitude |
Sociability |
P_R |
P_I |
L_C |
|
Attitude |
1.000 |
|
|
|
|
|
Sociability |
.04 |
1.000 |
|
|
|
|
P_R |
.49** |
-.08 |
1.000 |
|
|
|
P_I |
.11 |
.10 |
.40** |
1.000 |
|
|
L_C |
.09 |
.08 |
-.14 |
-.23** |
1.000 |
The negative correlations show that, as the index score
of the locus of control increases, the perceived interactivity index score
decreases. In addition to this, the result also indicates that the perceived
reliability of Internet advertising is significantly correlated with perceived
interactivity. As shown Table 2, the correlation coefficient is .40, which
is significant at p £ .01. The results show that
sociability index score is not correlated with other variables, such as perceived
interactivity, attitude, or locus of control.
Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relationships between perceived interactivity, social-psychological variables, and other variables, such as perceived reliability and the amount of time spent using the Web. As shown in Table 2, the locus of control index score and the sociability index score are not significantly correlated with each other. This result indicates that these two variables may be used as predictor variables in the multiple regression model, because no multicollinearity between the locus of control variable and the sociability variable is found.
Table 3. Multiple Regression Analysis
for Predicting Perceived Interactivity
|
|
Perceived Interactivity |
||
|
Predictor
Variables |
B |
Beta |
t-ratio |
|
Sociability |
.21 |
.15 |
1.87 |
|
Locus
of Control |
-.13 |
.20 |
2.40* |
|
Perceived
Reliability |
.41 |
.35 |
4.24** |
|
Time
Spent in Web Usage |
1.38 |
.18 |
2.17** |
|
Constant |
18.27 |
|
|
R = .48, R-square = 23%, F = 8.70**, * p £ .05, **p £ .01
Table 3 presents the multiple regression results for
the relationship between perceived interactivity and the predictor variables.
This regression equation, using perceived interactivity as a dependent variable,
illustrates that all variables except sociability are significant predictors
for perceived interactivity. As shown above, the standardized Beta coefficient
is .20 for locus of control, .35 for perceived reliability of Internet advertising,
and .18 for the amount of time spent in using the Web. The locus of control
variable’s contribution to prediction of perceived interactivity is relatively
moderate, compared with perceived reliability, but still plays a role in increasing
the explanatory capacity of the regression model. Using this multiple regression
equation, 23% of the variance of perceived interactivity is explained.
Discussion
This study focused on the relative influence of social
contexts to which people belong, on their perceived interactivity. In summary,
it is found that people’s perceived interactivity is related to their locus
of control orientations. The hypotheses-testing results confirm that locus
of control is a relatively significant predictor for perceived interactivity:
people oriented to internal locus of control are likely to perceive a higher
level of interactivity than those oriented to external locus of control. In
addition, it is found that perceived reliability of Internet advertising is
also significantly related to perceived interactivity. As shown in Table 2,
perceived interactivity is significantly associated with perceived reliability
of Internet advertising. This result has a practical implication for Internet
advertising effects, in the sense that perceived interactivity can be a significant
predictor for people’s belief in the reliability of Internet advertising,
or vice versa.
The amount of time spent in using the Web is also a
significant predictor of perceived interactivity : people who spend more time
using the Web are likely to have a higher level of perceived interactivity
than those who spend less time using the Web.
It is also found that people’s perception of online
transaction safety is moderated by their locus of control orientations. People
who are oriented to an internal locus of control are likely to be less concerned
about online transaction safety than those oriented to an external locus of
control. Possible relationships between attitude toward Internet advertising
and locus of control orientations were not verified in this study.
Based on the discussion above, it is possible to moderately
conclude that people’s perceived interactivity may be influenced by the social
contexts to which they belong. Although these social-psychological variables
are not sufficient predictors of the degree of people’s perceived interactivity,
the moderating roles of the variables should be taken into serious consideration.
As a pioneering study of the relationships between perceived interactivity and social contexts, this study has some limitations. First of all, this study is confined to examining the relative influence of social-psychological variables partially reflecting social contexts to which people belong, on perceived interactivity. In other words, the actual social relationships which people have are not included in this study. Although the degree of sociability was measured to examine people’s tendencies in interaction with other people, relationships between perceived interactivity and sociability were not found.
Second, the Web-based survey method has some weaknesses in sampling, and the weaknesses result from the non-probabilistic sampling method, which reduces the degree of generalizability of the results.
For future research, it is suggested that other psychological factors, such as motivation and involvement, be compared with social contexts. Examining these individual psychological factors in relation to social contexts would reveal clearly not only the antecedents of those psychological characteristics of individuals, but also the micro-macro bridge between individual-level and social-level analyses.
Moreover, if various kinds
of variables reflecting the dynamic interactions on the interpersonal level
were taken into account, it would be possible to draw more detailed pictures
showing clearly the relationships between people’s Internet usage and their
social relationships. In addition, the extended “social network” concept enables
us not only to measure the actual degree of interpersonal contacts, but also
to understand much more elaborately the influences of the social network on
people’s Internet usage behavior and consumers’ information-processing in
relation to interactive advertising.
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