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AbstractRecent advancements in artificial intelligence have empowered voice assistants to comprehend user input and provide contextually relevant responses more effectively. This paper aims to explore people’s relationship with voice assistants, examining factors like the sense of power, control, closeness, and parasocial relationships, and how relationship types relate to the credibility of voice assistants. To investigate this, we built on the foundation of interpersonal relationships and applied parasocial relationship theory as a framework for understanding the human–agent relationship. We conducted an online survey (N = 393). Our results show that people mainly perceive their relationship with voice assistants as either a servant–master relationship, student–teacher relationship, or equal partnership. This study highlights that voice assistants’ mimicry of human characteristics can make them more than tools—they can also be perceived as servants, teachers, or equal partners. Notably, a significant association exists between relationship type and credibility judgments towards voice assistants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the dual-process model of entertainment experiences and motivated cognition, we propose that specific affective states such as surprise, curiosity, and confusion (so-called epistemic emotions), as well as empathy, are involved in eudaimonic entertainment experiences while reading political news. We further assume that these emotions are related to normatively desirable outcomes such as deliberation within, information seeking, and knowledge acquisition about political topics. To test the hypothesized model, we conducted a between-subjects online experiment (N = 407) that used different stimuli to induce the emotions of interest while simultaneously varying news topics. Structural equation modeling revealed that the data mostly supported our hypotheses. Overall, we find that through these affective states, even soft news can enable normatively desirable outcomes. All data and materials can be accessed from . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feeling ostracised, that is, feeling ignored and excluded, in a social media environment causes negative affect and threatens fundamental human needs. Socially anxious people are especially fearful of social exclusion and may—if they feel ostracised—suffer even more when they do not have low-risk coping options such as using the Like button. Using the Online Ostracism tool, in a 2 (Ostracism vs. Inclusion) × 2 (Coping Deprivation vs. Control) experimental design, individuals with various social anxiety levels (N = 131) engaged in an online group task. Coping deprivation was operationalised via a disabled Like button. Compared to included participants, those who were ostracised reported significantly more threatened needs and worse mood. Needs were mostly threatened when ostracised ones encountered a disabled Like button. Social anxiety did not moderate this Ostracism × Coping interaction effect. However, the more socially anxious ostracised individuals were, the more they used the Like button. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socially excluded individuals often use media to cope with their feelings of loneliness, restore threatened needs, and regulate their emotions. However, social exclusion experiences have often been studied from a social-psychological perspective, with little consideration of media-specific characteristics. Thus, this paper aims to identify which different media applications individuals use to overcome social exclusion experiences and how effective this is in terms of need restoration and emotion regulation. A systematic review yielded 119 studies investigating 274 coping tools and 134 underlying strategies. Results indicated that media represent multifunctional tools that enable behavioral approach, behavioral avoidance, cognitive approach, and cognitive avoidance coping. Overall, using these tools was effective in 59% of all cases, with different strategies being linked to more or less effectiveness. By highlighting the theoretical implications of these findings, this paper provides six suggestions that can guide future research within this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the controversial relationship and blurred lines between information and entertainment media, the current study's goal aimed at qualitatively exploring media entertainment's role in emerging adults' political identity formation and engagement. By analyzing 55 semistructured interviews from Germany, Croatia, Turkey, South Korea, and the Philippines, we examined how emerging adults in 5 countries--differing in tightnesslooseness, political culture, and media freedom--explore alternative political identities (identity exploration) and commit to a set of political values (identity commitment). Across countries, notable similarities supported the notion of traditional and new forms of entertainment as universal drivers of political identity formation and engagement (e.g., informational source, broadening one's horizon). However, idiosyncrasies of countries reflected unique cultural values, beliefs, and norms, and the benefits of media entertainment pathways to political identity development appeared to depend on political freedom and democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democracies around the world are struggling with the decline of civic and political engagement. At the same time, new forms of engagement such as lifestyle politics, Internet activism, and political consumerism are on the rise. In this introduction to the Special Section, we argue that citizens are increasingly engaging through informal, creative, and digitally networked activities, thereby moving political engagement into the domain of entertainment and personalized communication on the Internet and in social media. Moreover, we advocate a cross-cultural approach to explore how media use contributes to political participation in a globalized, mediatized world. The studies assembled in this Special Section show that political engagement through using media hinges on cultural parameters such as political structures, political leaders, press freedom, neo-tribes, degrees of tightness, postmaterialist values, norms, and localized versus centralized patterns of information disorder, to mention a few. Implications of the studies and suggestions for future research direction are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile phones, television, internet services, games, and social media offer diverse and numerous opportunities for coping with stress in everyday life. Different disciplines have contributed to answering how these media are used for coping. Consequently, fragmented and disconnected research perspectives have evolved. To improve integration, we conducted a scoping review. A total of 318 articles met the inclusion criteria. Three main perspectives on media use for coping were identified: (1) stress and coping, (2) mood management and emotion regulation, and (3) media addiction and problematic media use. Each perspective has contributed to different aspects of the use of media for coping. Six advancements are proposed, which attempt to integrate perspectives and to guide future research on coping using media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smartphones are ubiquitous and frequently used in copresent interactions. This behavior is often seen as inappropriate and thus has been termed phubbing, compromising the words "phone" and "snubbing." Although being a worldwide phenomenon, little is known about what predicts phubbing behavior in the first place. Drawing on injunctive norms (i.e., what ought to be done), the study's aim was to shed light on the relationship between mobile phone norms (MPN) and phubbing behavior. Furthermore, the role of being permanently online and permanently connected (POPC) and fear of missing out (FOMO), reflecting approach and avoidance orientations, respectively, as additional predictors and moderators was investigated. As expected, the findings of an online survey (N = 278) supported the assumption that MPN were negatively related to phubbing behavior. Moreover, results showed that both FOMO and POPC were significantly positively connected to phubbing behavior but did not play significant moderating roles concerning the norm–phubbing relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When posting content in social media, users can feel excluded due to lacking (cyber-ostracism) or negative (cyber-rejection) feedback. Referring to the temporal need-threat model, this study examined the impact that both exclusion experiences have on social media users' need threat and on their online coping behavior to fortify threatened needs. For this purpose, a pre-registered between-subjects experiment (N = 211) was conducted by manipulating the type of social exclusion on three levels (ostracism; rejection; inclusion). Results indicated that both types of exclusion threatened media users' needs for belonging, self-esteem, meaningful existence, and control. Compared to ostracized users, rejected ones were more threatened in their needs for belonging and self-esteem, but equally threatened in their needs for meaningful existence and control. Regarding social media users' coping behavior, ostracized users showed more prosocial behavior, whereas rejected ones rather withdrew from social interactions. Material, code, and data can be found at . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]