Effect of social decontextualization

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The effect of social decontextualization describes a method effect in empirical online research (e.g. online surveys ) that leads to systematic distortions . This can limit the quality of the answers collected online. The effect of social decontextualization is a two-sided one:

  • On the one hand, it means that in an online survey, social norms or social aspects are less considered in response behavior than in 'normal everyday life'. So in the answers z. B. less strongly 'what should be done' or 'what should be done'.
  • On the other hand, it ensures that respondents in an online survey direct their attention more to themselves than in other forms of communication or survey situations. As a result, aspects that concern yourself (e.g. very personal values ​​or wishes) are considered more important in an online survey than in other surveys.

Above all, the effect of social decontextualization can limit the comparability of survey results from different methods. It must be distinguished from the effect of social desirability : distortions caused by effects of social desirability take place more or less consciously, namely through an advantageous representation of the person, distortions caused by effects of social decontextualization tend to take place unconsciously.

background

The effect of social decontextualization arises from the special situation of computer-mediated communication (cvK for short). In contrast to personal communication , significantly fewer communication channels can be used here to transmit information. As a rule, only visual content is transmitted, no auditory, olfactory or tactile information. Physical contact is not possible, nor is the voice available as an aid (e.g. to clarify irony). Also, gestures and facial expressions , such as shaking of the head or smile, not transmitted. The non-verbal communication does not take place here or only to a very limited extent.

This leads to a low social presence (cf. Short et al. 1976). The term social presence means the feeling that others are involved in a common communication. Put simply, it is the feeling of being with someone else (cf. this 1976). This is comparatively less pronounced in the CVC. According to the Social-Cues-Filtered-Out-Hypotheses of Sproull and Kiesler (1986, 1991) (also known as the 'channel reduction model' in German), this leads to a shift in the user's focus of attention: They take away the goal of communication and also the own person more true than in other communication situations.

This approach received a lot of attention in the literature, but then continued to decline in popularity. This is mainly due to the very pessimistic assessment of the CVC. This very early approach does not take into account the fact that new options for action are developing or have already developed through cvK and Internet use (cf. Köhler 2003). Therefore z. B. Höflich (2003) also suggests speaking of 'recontextualization' instead of 'decontextualization'. In principle, however, both terms are represented.

Empiricism

This was proven empirically primarily by Sproull and Kiesler (cf. Sproull / Kiesler 1986, 1991). However, these authors mainly refer to cvK as a form of communication. The transfer to cvK as a method is done by Taddicken (2008). In a method comparison, answers between the online survey, the telephone survey and the postal survey were compared with one another. On the one hand, a scale for recording the norm intensity by Diekmann (1980) is used, on the other hand, a scale for recording personal or individual values ​​by Klages (1992) and Hermann (2003). In this comparison of methods, all approx. 600 test persons were questioned twice (in the sense of a test-retest procedure): once online and once either by telephone or post. This procedure made it possible to use a multitrait multimethod matrix . The results show that the normal intensity of the subjects in the online survey was significantly less pronounced than in the situation of the other survey method. With regard to individual values, there were also differences such that they were rated as more important in the online survey. However, this was particularly significant when comparing online and telephone surveys.

literature

  • Andreas Diekmann: The role of norms, reference groups and sanctions in shoplifting . (= Research Report No. 156 of the Institute for Advanced Studies). Vienna 1980.
  • Dieter Hermann: values ​​and crime. Conception of a general theory of crime . Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-531-13805-7 .
  • Joachim R. Höflich: People, computers and communication: theoretical locations and empirical findings . Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-631-39686-4 .
  • Helmut Klages: The current situation of value and value change research. Problems and Perspectives. In: Helmut Klages, Hans-Jürgen Hippler, Willi Herbert (eds.): Values ​​and change. Results and methods of a research tradition . Frankfurt am Main, 1992, pp. 5-39.
  • Thomas Köhler: The Self on the Net. The construction of social identity in computer-mediated communication . Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-531-14026-4 .
  • John Short, Ederyn Williams, Bruce Christie: The Social Psychology of Telecommunications . London / New York / Sydney / Toronto 1976.
  • Lee Sproull, Sara Kiesler: Reducing Social Context Cues: Electronic Mail in Organizational Communication. In: Management Science. 32 (11), 1986, pp. 1492-1512.
  • Lee Sproull, Sara Kiesler: Two-Level Perspective on Electronic Mail in Organizations. In: Journal of Organizational Computing. 2 (1), 1991, pp. 125-134.
  • Monika Taddicken: Method effects in web surveys. Limitations of the data quality through a ‹reduced communication medium›? (= New Writings on Online Research, Volume 5). Halem Verlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-938258-50-7 .