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Informed by research linking high levels of parental self-efficacy to positive parenting practices, and acknowledging scholarly concerns on ‘moral panics’, this paper extends studies on Internet-Specific Parental Self-Efficacy (IS-PSE) in examining whether sensationalised media reporting might contribute to decreases in self-efficacy in the context of parenting in a digital environment. Using a purposive sample of parents of primary school children in Ireland (N = 210), participants were exposed to either a sensationalised or a balanced media article, observing changes in IS-PSE scores. Although to varying extents, the results of this research provide some support for concerns regarding the impact of sensationalised reporting on IS-PSE, with findings identifying those most likely impacted. In doing so, the study also quantifies the positive impact of the provision of balanced information on levels of IS-PSE. Informed by this current study, opportunities for continued research are considered.

The goal of this study was to investigate the importance of empathy, and more specifically perspective taking towards an avatar, in the possible change of social belief through video game experience. Participants were randomly assigned into two groups. The control group played a single and simple chapter of the game Detroit: Become Human (Quantic Dream, 2018) in which they incarnated a female android. The experimental group also played a second strongly emotionally and morally immersive chapter of that same game. The results showed a positive evolution in the beliefs concerning topics directly addressed in the game, more specifically in significantly higher avatar-emotional connection context. Therefore, cognitive empathy seems to be a moderator of belief change in video game environment.

Voice interfaces are considered a more natural and effective means for people to interact with computer systems (Batish, 2018). However, whilst there has been a huge increase in Voice interfaces being created by technology providers, for example, Google (Kinsella, 2019), Amazon (About Amazon, 2018) and Facebook (Jee, 2019), there has been very little research done to determine if people actually do find voice interfaces easier to use (Piccolo, Mensio & Alani, 2019). Individual preferences in cognitive styles, such as Need for Cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982), have not been taken into account. This research aimed to examine whether Need for Cognition influences individuals to find it easier to interact over a voice interface than a chatbot interface. Participants’ (N=51) Need for Cognition was measured before interacting with a voicebot and chatbot, and Customer Effort Score (Dixon, Freeman & Toman, 2010) was measured immediately after those interactions. The results showed no significant evidence of voicebots being considered easier to use. The findings are discussed in the context of user understanding and heuristics of voice interfaces, and suggestions for future research are made.

The last few years have seen the arrival of virtual doctor services that can be accessed at any time, on any smart device and like other e-commerce activities there is an extra element of doubt, anonymity and risk. Transacting online depends on the individual’s belief that the other party is honest, benevolent and competent. Consumers need to decide which online doctors are trustworthy and doctors need to demonstrate they can be trusted. This study conducted an online survey with 93 valid responses to explore the moderating factors that guide trusting intentions towards engaging with online doctors. The results indicate that like e-commerce websites, structural guarantees around privacy, security and third-party assurances are essential. However, consumers also rely on instinct when making a judgement of trustworthiness and in this context, they consider the overall design of the website when forming a decision to trust.

The concept of Nomophobia is recognised among researchers when describing smartphone separation anxiety. This has been a subject of growing interest; however little research has been done into the phenomena’s correlational, or predicting, factors. This study intends to help fill this gap by exploring potential predictors of its occurrence. Firstly, it examined whether nomophobia is an experience recognized by sufferers; secondly who is most likely to experience it; and finally to establish if impulsivity levels could be a potential predictor of its occurrence. The study was conducted on 262 Irish smartphone users through self-administered surveys. The MPIQ and the BIS-11 were used to establish the presence of nomophobia and impulsivity levels. Perceptions of overuse and attentional impulsivity were the only positive predictors of nomophobia. Results also highlighted that contrary to prior research, 18-24-year olds were found to experience nomophobia at lower frequency to older cohorts.

Existing research on online support groups suggests that in-group identification mediates the relationship between social support and well-being. Since anonymity is theorised to increase group salience, it was hypothesised that LGBT support forums would engender a greater level of in-group identification than LGBT Facebook groups. As no study to date had compared LGBT support groups on these platforms, the relationships between social support, in-group identification and well-being were also investigated. An online survey was completed by a sample of 114 LGBT adults. While in-group identification was found to be significantly higher on LGBT forums than on LGBT Facebook groups, no relationship was found between social support and well-being, or between in-group identification and well-being, on either platform. The characteristics of the sample may have contributed to this finding as most respondents were out offline, felt comfortable with their identity, and lived in an urban area, and thus may have been less dependent on online support. Future research might focus on a younger, more rural, cohort for whom online support may be more crucial.

ISIS have become experts at exploiting social media to advance their digital campaign. This research paper is concerned with identifying the salient sentiments contained within the Twitter content of 23 identified pro-ISIS fanboys surrounding the Brussels attacks in 2016. An inductive thematic analysis was employed to examine 1283 tweets from the “How ISIS use Twitter” (HIUT, 2016) dataset. Twelve principle codes were devised which contributed to the development of four salient themes. This formed the basis for a narrative representation of the data. Results identified sentiments relating to motivation, intimidation, justification and Islamophobia. Although a small sample cohort, this study contributes to an under-researched area in psychology in explicitly exploring the latent concepts contained within this ISIS Twitter cell.

Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) apps allow for easy social interaction, however, individuals increasingly report feeling overwhelmed and distracted by these interaction opportunities, followed by a pressure to respond, with senders expecting their messages to be seen, read and replied to instantly. To manage these expectations, MIM apps have evolved to include online status and message read receipts. Research has demonstrated that these app signals have increased the pressure to respond, with the average expected response time being considered instant particularly when a message is ‘read’. With this in mind present study aimed to explore how individuals form these expectations, how the response time is perceived and how these are influenced by MIM app signals. The results indicated that expectations and perceptions of response time are influenced by a number of related factors, including but not limited to MIM app signals of user activity. The results also demonstrated that the decision to respond to a message is also partly influenced by a pressure from MIM app signals such as message read receipts as there is a social obligation associated with opening a message.

The objective of this research was to seek and understanding of how the role of demographics and personality traits influence impulsive shopping behaviours within online retail platforms. Whilst previous research has focused on traditional offline shopping environments, analysis was deficient on how demographics and personality are intrinsically associated with irrational consumption online. Consequently, this research through quantitative analysis of 104 respondents from an adapted online questionnaire sought to confirm personality as a predictor of impulsive shopping behaviour. The findings revealed that age, gender and frequency had a positive correlation with impulsive consumption, however the results for personality traits proved inconclusive. Nevertheless, the research offered a viable model for future research on how demographics and personality dichotomies influence impulsive purchasing online.