소셜 미디어 상 ‘좋아요’를 누르는 행위를 인식함에 있어 남녀 차이에 대한 탐색적 연구: 공감 혹은 지지, 그리고 관계 강화 혹은 정보 공유

This study explored the emotional and social implications of social media “like” behavior and examined the difference in this behavior across gender. Most studies on social media have analyzed the “like” behavior quantitatively and determined the number of “likes” produced and exchanged. The current study presented a different view by applying a social perspective and analyzing the user intrinsic motives embedded in the “like” behavior. Specifically, we identified empathy and social support as the “like” motivations and used relationship building and information sharing as the mediators. Furthermore, we hypothesized that empathy and social support exhibit different effects on the use of social media across gender: the female group shows strong empathy, and the male group shows strong social support. Validation was performed through a survey of 285 social media users. The results confirmed that empathy and social support have significant effects on the use of social media. However, gender difference in the use of social media was not evident and was only partially evident in the effects of empathy and social support.