Expectancy violation in a Facebook group: What is your response?

Abstract

Purpose

Facebook groups provide a forum for members to post content and engage with others through comments. Sometimes members behave poorly and violate the expectations of group members. In this study, the authors build a research framework based on expectancy violation theory (EVT) to predict and better understand the behaviour and responses of members when faced with violations in their groups.

Design/methodology/approach

Facebook group members completed surveys regarding their interactions in social media groups. The independent variable predictors in the study were categorized by personal characteristics, relationship characteristics and group characteristics. Participants also identified expectancy violations they had encountered (either severe or mild) and identified how they would react to the two types of violations. Regression models were developed for severe and mild violations.

Findings

The regression models show that personal characteristics such as age, gender and marital status; relationship characteristics such as their social media usage frequency and their social media engagement level; group characteristics such as anonymity of users and purpose of the group as well as the perceived severity of the violation influence how a member will respond to the expectancy violation.

Originality/value

The research study extends the existing expectancy violation literature by providing a comprehensive framework to predict how users will react to negative expectancy violations. This study also has practical implications for how group administrators might manage expectancy violations.

Citation

Tomasi, S., Han, C. and Otto, J. (2022), "Expectancy violation in a Facebook group: What is your response?", Information Technology & People, Vol. 35 No. 4, pp. 1428-1442. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-06-2020-0447