The Jealousy Effect of Emoticons on Social Media - Essay Sample

Introduction

The research by Hudson et al. 2015 aimed to clarify the use of emotions in Facebook and how they provoke jealousy among heterosexual partners. The research employed the completion of Facebook Jealousy Scale and answering open-ended questions. A total of 370 participants were involved in the study. The results of the survey differed according to qualitative and quantitative responses employed. Particular cues used in a conversation also seemed o provoke jealousy among men and women Facebook users at different rates. Men were found to be more jealous than women when winking emotions are used in a conversation as both genders associate them with flirting. Women when facing jealousy situations comforted their partners and preferred to reason with them as men presented a more aggressive response.

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Additionally, when the Muise et al. scale is used women showed more jealousy and whether emotion was included in a conversation or not. However, the author identifies that the reliability level of the Muise et al. scale is high and may have influenced ale responses to conform to societal expectations (Hudson et al. 2015). In conclusion, women were found to be heavy users of Facebook as the site promotes more of emotional infidelity rather than sexual infidelity.

Dependent and Independent Variables in the Study

The test scores from emotional message cues as per Jealousy Scale are the dependent variables of the research. Facebook jealousy s the independent variable in the study as it exists whether the signals are used in conversations or not.

Experimental and Control Groups of the Study

The control and experimental groups were used to test the effect of the dependent variable on the independent variable. The experimental group is the one which involved emotion in their response. The control group, on the other hand, responded without the use of emotion.

Correlations in the Study

Women tend to generally display emotional jealousy more than men (Hudson et al. 2015). A positive correlation is therefore depicted as emotional jealousy decreases and increases at the same time depending on the gender of specific Facebook users. The display of emotional jealousy among men makes them more likely to confide in others and confront their partners (Hudson et al. 2015).

Men were more jealous when their partners used winked messages and less jealous when winked messages are not used in a conversation (Hudson et al. 2015). The latter is because men use winked messages for flirting more than women, therefore, indicating negative correlation. The negative correlation is where an increase in one variable results in a decrease in the other and vice versa (Bobko, 2001)

References

Bobko, P. (2001). Correlation and regression: Applications for industrial-organizational psychology and management. Sage.

Hudson, M. B., Nicolas, S. C., Howser, M. E., Lipsett, K. E., Robinson, I. W., Pope, L. J., ... & Friedman, D. R. (2015). Examining how gender and emoticons influence Facebook jealousy. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(2), 87-92.