Runxi Zeng, Di Zhu

School of Journalism and Communication, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China

Abstract:Fear of evaluation is a key factor that affects how social media users present themselves to others, but little is known about the effects and mechanisms involved, especially on the relationship between fear of positive evaluation and online self-disclosure. This study explores how fear of evaluation affects online self-disclosure and examines how this relationship is moderated by protective face orientation in the Chinese context. A total of 750 Chinese WeChat users constituted the sample for a questionnaire-based analysis and regression analysis. The results showed that both fear of positive evaluation and fear of negative evaluation had a significant negative effect on the amount of online self-disclosure and a significant positive effect on the depth of online self-disclosure. Protective face orientation had a moderating effect on the relationship between fear of evaluation and online self-disclosure for both the amount and depth of online self-disclosure. Our findings suggest that social network site (SNS) users' fear of evaluation can be attributed to their cognitive attitude toward the external environment, and the loss of face in the Chinese context can be included in the social context.

Keywords:fear of positive evaluation; fear of negative evaluation; online self-disclosure; protective face orientation; WeChat; Chinese context

Funding:This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2019CDJSK07XK02), Graduate Research and Innovation Foundation of Chongqing (CYB21057), and Chinese youth patriotic united front theory research fund (RZ).

Serial number:530722

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.530722

 

Frontiers in Psychology

心理学前沿

2021年第12期

ISSN:1664-1078