The Influence of Prosocial Norms and Online Network Structure on Prosocial Behavior: An Analysis of Movember’s Twitter Campaign in 24 Countries

Sociological research points at norms and social networks as antecedents of prosocial behavior. To date, the literature remains undecided on how these factors jointly influence prosocial behavior. Furthermore, the use of social media by campaign organizations may change the need for formal networks to organize large-scale collective action. Hence, in this paper we examine the interplay of prosocial norms and the structure of online social networks on offline prosocial behavior. For this purpose we use donation data from the global Movember campaign, messages about the Movember campaign on the online social networking site Twitter, and data from the World Giving Index. A multi-level analysis of Movember’s campaigns in 24 countries finds support for the logic of connective action: larger and more decentralized networks raise more donations. Furthermore, we find that the effect of prosocial norms on donations is decreased by larger and denser campaign networks INTRODUCTION “Why do people engage in behavior that benefits one or more others?” is one of the fundamental questions in sociology. So far, research discusses two key factors that explain why individuals engage in prosocial behavior: norms and networks (Bekkers and Schuyt 2008, Bekkers and Wiepking 2010, Simpson and Willer 2015). To date, however, most studies examine the influence of either norms or networks on prosocial behavior (Bekkers and Wiepking 2010, Ruiter and De Graaf 2006, Simpson and Willer 2015). People with a prosocial motivation may require the pressure from their social network to live up their intentions (De Graaf, Need and Ultee 2004). Hence, our study follows calls (Bekkers and Wiepking 2010) for research on the interaction between prosocial norms and social network structure to provide a multi-level explanation of prosocial behavior. Social media is increasingly used by fundraising organizations to promote prosocial behavior, e.g. acquiring funding for health research (Chou et al. 2013, Maher et al. 2014, Wehner et al. 2014). However, little is known about how prosocial norms and online social networks jointly stimulate offline prosocial behavior (Saxton and Wang 2013, van Leeuwen and Wiepking 2013). An emerging body of sociological research argues that the low costs, speed, scale and connectivity of digital media may reduce the need for formal, centralized organization of collective action (Bennett and Segerberg 2012, Bimber, Flanagin and Stohl 2005, Lupia and Sin 2003, Saxton and Wang 2013). Hence, the use of social media may change the effect of social network structure on prosocial behavior. Working paper presented at #SMAO 2015 conference – PLEASE DO NOT CITE 2 Following both theoretical gaps, the research question of our study is: “In what way do (a) prosocial norms and the online social network structure and (b) their interplay influence the cumulative amount of donations collected in a Twitter fundraising campaign?” The empirical setting is the global Movember campaign. In 2013, Movember participants raised approximately 147 million dollar for men-related cancer and mental health research. We use longitudinal data from the Movember’s Twitter campaign in 24 countries to study how the online network structure of the campaign reinforces the effect of prosocial norms. THEORY AND HYPOTHESES