Jesse Fox

Online video games can be a toxic environment for women. A survey assessed women’s ( N = 293) experiences with general harassment and sexual harassment in online video games, including frequency of harassment, rumination about the harassment, perceptions of organizational responsiveness (i.e. efforts the gaming company made to address harassment), and withdrawal from the game. Women reported coping strategies to mitigate harassment, including gender bending or gender neutralization ...

Research on social media typically focuses on its benefits; considerably less is known about the dark side of social networking sites. Focus groups of adult Facebook users (N=44) uncovered narratives surrounding individuals’ negative psychological and relational experiences tied to the social networking site and its affordances (e.g., connectivity, visibility, accessibility, persistence, and social feedback). Thematic analysis rendered five themes regarding Facebook stressors: managing ...

Online video games afford co-play and social interaction, often anonymous, among players from around the world. As predicted by the social identity model of deindividuation effects, undesirable behavior is not uncommon in online gaming environments, and online harassment has become a pervasive issue in the gaming community. In this study, we sought to determine what personality traits and game-related variables predicted two types of online aggression in video games: general harassment ...

An online survey of a nationally representative sample of U.S. men aged 18–40 assessed trait predictors of social networking site use as well as two forms of visual self-presentation: editing one’s image in photographs posted on social networking sites (SNSs) and posting “selfies,” or pictures users take of themselves. We examined the Dark Triad (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) and trait self-objectification as predictors. Self-objectification and narcissism ...

Romantic relationship dissolution can be stressful, and social networking sites make it difficult to separate from a romantic partner online as well as offline. An online survey (N = 431) tested a model synthesizing attachment, investment model variables, and post-dissolution emotional distress as predictors of interpersonal surveillance (i.e., "Facebook stalking") of one's ex-partner on Facebook after a breakup. Results indicated that anxious attachment predicted relational investment ...

Social networking sites are becoming a prevalent form of communication in the escalation of romantic relationships. An online survey (n=403) addressed emerging adults' experiences with Facebook and romantic relationships, particularly a unique affordance of Facebook: the ability to declare oneself as "In a Relationship" and actively link one's profile to a romantic partner's, commonly known as going Facebook official. Results identified common social perceptions of the meaning of this ...

Social networking sites serve as both a source of information and a source of tension between romantic partners. Previous studies have investigated the use of Facebook for monitoring former and current romantic partners, but why certain individuals engage in this behavior has not been fully explained. College students (N=328) participated in an online survey that examined two potential explanatory variables for interpersonal electronic surveillance (IES) of romantic partners: attachment ...

Through social media and camera phones, users enact selective self-presentation as they choose, edit, and post photographs of themselves (such as selfies) to social networking sites for an imagined audience. Photos typically focus on users' physical appearance, which may compound existing sociocultural pressures about body image. We identified users of social networking sites among a nationally representative U.S. sample (N = 1,686) and examined women's and men's photo-related behavior, ...

Sexism toward women in online video game environments has become a pervasive and divisive issue in the gaming community. In this study, we sought to determine what personality traits, demographic variables, and levels of game play predicted sexist attitudes towards women who play video games. Male and female participants (N=301) who were players of networked video games were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey. Social dominance orientation and conformity to some types of ...

In this study, we explored how social media, particularly social networking sites, serve as informal learning environments for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and otherwise-identified (LGBTQ) individuals during formative stages of their evolving LGBTQ identity. We conducted semi-structured interviews (N = 33) probing LGBTQ individuals’ use of social media and identified three educational uses tied to online information seeking: traditional learning (e.g., information ...

Social cognitive theory is often implemented when researchers develop treatments and campaigns for health behavior change. Immersive virtual environment technology (IVET) enables novel explorations of health behavior modeling. In Study 1, participants were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: vicarious reinforcement, in which a virtual representation of the physical self (VRS) gained or lost weight in accordance with participants' physical exercise; an unchanging VRS; or no ...

Gamification includes the use of gaming features, such as points or leaderboards, in non-gaming contexts, and is a frequently-discussed trend in education. One way of gamifying the classroom is to introduce leaderboards. Leaderboards allow students to see how they are performing relative to others in the same class. Little empirical research has investigated the impact of leaderboards on academic performance. In this study, 80 female undergraduates took a math test in a virtual ...

Research has indicated that many video games and virtual worlds are populated by unrealistic, hypersexualized representations of women, but the effects of embodying these representations remains understudied. The Proteus effect proposed by Yee and Bailenson (2007) suggests that embodiment may lead to shifts in self-perception both online and offline based on the avatar’s features or behaviors. A 2×2 experiment, the first of its kind, examined how self-perception and attitudes changed ...

This study examines the implications of social networking web sites (SNSs) within romantic relationships. Specifically, Knapp’s (1978) stage model of relationships is examined through a new lens wherein the role of SNSs, specifically Facebook, is explored in the escalation stages of romantic relationships (i.e., initiating, experimenting, intensifying, integrating, and bonding). Furthermore, this study sought to discern the interpersonal and social implications of publicly declaring ...

Due to their prevalence and unique affordances, social networking sites such as Facebook have the potential to influence offline relationships. This study employed Baxter’s (2011) refinement of relational dialectics theory to explore Facebook’s role in emerging adults’ romantic relationships. Data from ten focus groups revealed that Facebook contributes to and provides a forum for discursive struggles related to the integration–separation, expression–privacy, and stability–change ...