Skip to main content
Search
Search
    Quick Search anywhere
    Quick search in Citations
Advanced Search
Skip main navigationClose Drawer MenuOpen Drawer Menu
Previous article
Next article
Original Article

Social Categorization, Moral Disengagement, and Credibility of Ideological Group Websites

Published Online:January 30, 2015https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000138

Abstract

Abstract. The online presence of ideological groups has enabled the dissemination of group beliefs and ideas through a variety of new media outlets. Websites have offered a way for these groups to share aspects of their ideology and to create a sense of shared identity. While ideological groups have been of interest for decades, little empirical research has examined their online presence. The aims of this study were to compare nonviolent and violent ideological group websites with each other and with nonideological websites with respect to social categorization, moral disengagement, and website credibility, and to examine the relationships of psychological processes to website credibility. A content analysis approach was used to rate 105 websites (violent = 32, nonviolent = 36; nonideological = 37) for aspects of social categorization, outgrouping, moral disengagement, content features of credibility, and structural features of credibility. Violent ideological group websites manifest a greater degree of social categorization, outgrouping, and moral disengagement than nonviolent ideological and nonideological websites. Regression analysis shows that these three variables negatively predict content and structural website credibility for nonviolent ideological groups but do not significantly predict website credibility for violent groups or nonideological groups. Potential limitations include small sample, use of raters (vs. normative website visitors) to evaluate websites, inclusion of only English-language websites, limited number of psychological processes examined and the potential need for more specific website categories. Social identity processes on websites vary for different types of groups and impact perceived credibility of such groups in online environments.

References

  • Aberson, C. L., Healy, M. & Romero, V. (2000). Ingroup bias and self-esteem: A meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4(2), 157–173. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Akins, J. K. (2006). The Ku Klux Klan: America’s forgotten terrorists. Law Enforcement Executive Forum, 5, 127–144. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Alexander, J. E. & Tate, M. A. (1999). Web wisdom: How to evaluate and create information quality on the Web. New York: Routledge. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Angie, A. D., Davis, J. L., Allen, M. T., Byrne, C. L., Ruark, G., Cunningham, C. B., … Mumford, M. D. (2011). Studying ideological groups online: Identification and assessment of risk factors for violence. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 41, 627–657. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Ashmore, R. D., Deaux, K. & McLaughlin-Volpe, T. (2004). An organizing framework for collective identity: articulation and significance of multidimensionality. Psychological Bulletin, 130(1), 80–144. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Bandura, A. (1989). Human agency in social cognitive theory. American psychologist, 44(9), 1175–1184. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Bandura, A. (1999). Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3(3), 193–209. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Bernardin, H. J. & Buckley, M. R. (1981). Strategies in rater training. Academy of Management Review, 6(2), 205–212. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Bobo, L. (1983). Whites’ opposition to busing: Symbolic racism or realistic group conflict? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 1196–1210. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Brandt, D. S. (1996). Evaluating information on the Internet. Computers in Libraries, 16(5), 44–46. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Davern, M. J., Te’eni, D. & Moon, J. Y. (2000, December). Content versus structure in information environments: A longitudinal analysis of Website preferences. Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Information Systems (pp. 564–570). Atlanta, GA: Association for Information Systems. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Dobratz, B. A. & Shanks-Meile, S. L. (1997). White power, white pride! The white separatist movement in the United States. New York: Twayne. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Ellemers, N., Spears, R. & Doosje, B. (2002). Self and social identity. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 161–186. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Eysenbach, G. & Köhler, C. (2002). How do consumers search for and appraise health information on the world wide web? Qualitative study using focus groups, usability tests, and in-depth interviews. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 324(7337), 573–577. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Flanagin, A. J. & Metzger, M. J. (2007). The role of site features, user attributes, and information verification behaviors on the perceived credibility of web-based information. New Media & Society, 9(2), 319–342. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Flanagin, A. J. & Metzger, M. (2008). Digital media and youth: Unparalleled opportunity and unprecedented responsibility. In M. MetzgerA. J. FlanaginEds., Digital media, youth, and credibility (pp. 5–28). The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Fogg, B. J. (2003). Prominence-interpretation theory: explaining how people assess credibility online. CHI’03 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (pp. 722–723). April. New York: ACM. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Frischlich, L. & Rieger, D. (2013). Dealing with the dark side: Negative ingroups and the effects of right-wing and Islamic extremist propaganda videos. June Paper presented at the 63th annual International Communication Association conference, London, UK. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Gerstenfeld, P. B., Grant, D. R. & Chiang, C. P. (2003). Hate online: A content analysis of extremist Internet sites. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 3(1), 29–44. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Griffith, J. A., Byrne, C. L., Nei, D. S., Barrett, J. D., Hughes, M. G., Davis, J. L., … Mumford, M. D. (2013). Online ideology: A comparison of website communication and media use. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 18(2), 137–153. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Heath, R. L. & O’Hair, H. D. (2009). The significance of crisis and risk communication. In R. L. HeathH. D. O’HairEds., Handbook of risk and crisis communication (pp. 5–30). New York: Routledge. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Hewstone, M., Rubin, M. & Willis, H. (2002). Intergroup bias. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 575–604. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Hogg, M. A. (2003). Social identity. In M. R. LearyJ. P. TangneyEds., Handbook of self and identity (pp. 462–479). New York: Guilford Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Hogg, M. A. (2005). Uncertainty, social identity, and ideology. In S. R. ThyeE. J. LawlerEds., Advances in group processes (Vol. 2 pp. 203–229). San Diego, CA: Elsevier. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Hogg, M. A. (2007). Uncertainty-identity theory. In M. P. ZannaEd., Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 39, pp. 69–126). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Hogg, M. A., Meehan, C. & Farquharson, J. (2010). The solace of radicalism: Self-uncertainty and group identification in the face of threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 1061–1066. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Hong, T. (2006). The influence of structural and message features on Web site credibility. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 57(1), 114–127. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Hovland, C. I., Janis, I. L. & Kelley, H. H. (1953). Communication and persuasion: Psychological studies of opinion change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Jensen, M. L., Dunbar, N., Connelly, S., Taylor, W., Adame, B., Rozzell, B. & Hughes, M. (2013). Social media on violent ideological group websites. Paper presented at the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Chicago, IL. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Jost, J. T. & Hunyady, O. (2005). Antecedents and consequences of system-justifying ideologies. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(5), 260–265. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Kinder, D. R. & Sears, D. O. (1981). Prejudice and politics: Symbolic racism versus racial threats to the good life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40(3), 414–431. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Kozlowski, S. W. & Hattrup, K. (1992). A disagreement about within-group agreement: Disentangling issues of consistency versus consensus. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77(2), 161–167. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Lee, E. & Leets, L. (2002). Persuasive storytelling by hate groups online examining its effects on adolescents. American Behavioral Scientist, 45(6), 927–957. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Leidner, B., Castano, E., Zaiser, E. & Giner-Sorolla, R. (2010). Ingroup glorification, moral disengagement, and justice in the context of collective violence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(8), 1115–1129. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Lindell, M. K. & Brandt, C. J. (1999). Assessing interrater agreement on the job relevance of a test: A comparison of CVI, T, rWG(J), and r*WG(J). Journal of Applied Psychology, 84(4), 640–647. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Matusitz, J. & O’Hair, D. (2008). The role of the internet in terrorism. Terrorism: Communication and rhetorical perspectives, 383–407. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • McCroskey, J. C. & Teven, J. J. (1999). Goodwill: A reexamination of the construct and its measurement. Communications Monographs, 66(1), 90–103. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • McCroskey, J. C. & Young, T. J. (1981). Ethos and credibility: The construct and its measurement after three decades. Communication Studies, 32(1), 24–34. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Metzger, M. J. (2007). Making sense of credibility on the Web: Models for evaluating online information and recommendations for future research. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(13), 2078–2091. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Metzger, M. J., Flanagin, A. J. & Medders, R. B. (2010). Social and heuristic approaches to credibility evaluation online. Journal of Communication, 60(3), 413–439. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Moghaddam, F. M. (2005). The staircase to terrorism: A psychological exploration. American Psychologist, 60(2), 161–169. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Mumford, M. D., Bedell-Avers, K. E., Hunter, S. T., Espejo, J., Eubanks, D. & Connelly, M. S. (2008). Violence in ideological and non-ideological groups: A quantitative analysis of qualitative data. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38(6), 1521–1561. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Pape, B., Reinecke, L., Rohde, M. & Strauss, M. (2003, November). E-community-building in wilnf-central. Proceedings of the 2003 International ACM SIGGROUP Conference on Supporting Group Work (pp. 11–20). New York: ACM. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Parker, M. T. & Janoff-Bulman, R. (2013). Lessons from morality-based social identity: The power of outgroup “hate,” not just ingroup “love”. Social Justice Research, 26, 81–96. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Pittinsky, T. L., Shih, M. J. & Trahan, A. (2006). Identity cues: Evidence from and for intra-individual perspectives on positive and negative stereotyping. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36(9), 2215–2239. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Rains, S. A. & Karmikel, C. D. (2009). Health information-seeking and perceptions of website credibility: Examining Web-use orientation, message characteristics, and structural features of websites. Computers in Human Behavior, 25(2), 544–553. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Rieh, S. Y. (2002). Judgment of information quality and cognitive authority in the Web. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53, 145–161. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Riek, B. M., Mania, E. W. & Gaertner, S. L. (2006). Intergroup threat and outgroup attitudes: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(4), 336–353. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Roccas, S., Klar, Y. & Liviatan, I. (2006). The paradox of group-based guilt: Modes of national identification, conflict vehemence, and reactions to the in-group’s moral violations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(4), 698–711. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Schafer, J. A. (2002). Spinning the web of hate: Web-based hate propagation by extremist organizations. Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 9(2), 69–88. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Sherif, M. & Sherif, C. (1969). Ingroup and intergroup relations. Social psychology, , 221–266. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Stanton, J. J. (2002). Terror in cyberspace: Terrorists will exploit and widen the gap between governing structures and the public. American Behavioral Scientist, 45(6), 1017–1032. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Stemler, S. E. & Tsai, J. (2008). Best practices in interrater reliability: Three common approaches. In J. W. OsborneEd., Best practices in quantitative methods (pp. 29–49). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Stephan, W. G. & Stephan, C. W. (1996). Intergroup relations. Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Stephan, W. G. & Stephan, C. W. (2000). An integrated threat theory of prejudice. In S. OskampEd., Reducing prejudice and discrimination (pp. 23–45). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Symonenko, S. (2006). Exploring patterns in website content structure. Paper presented at the Information Architecture Summit (Learning, Doing, Selling). Vancouver, Canada. Retrieved from http://iasummit.org/2006/files/177_Presentation_Desc.pdf First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Tajfel, H. (1982). Social psychology of intergroup relations. Annual Review of Psychology, 33, 1–39. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Tajfel, H. & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. G. AustinS. WorchelEds., The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33–47). Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Taylor, D. M. & Moghaddam, F. M. (1994). Theories of intergroup relations: International social psychological perspectives. Westpart, CT: Praeger. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Teven, J. J. & McCroskey, J. C. (1997). The relationship of perceived teacher caring with student learning and teacher evaluation. Communication Education, 46, 1–9. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Thoroughgood, C. N., Padilla, A., Hunter, S. T. & Tate, B. W. (2012). The susceptible circle: A taxonomy of followers associated with destructive leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(5), 897–917. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Tinsley, H. E. & Weiss, D. J. (1975). Interrater reliability and agreement of subjective judgments. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 22(4), 358–376. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • van Birgelen, M. J., Wetzels, M. G. & van Dolen, W. M. (2008). Effectiveness of corporate employment web sites: How content and form influence intentions to apply. International Journal of Manpower, 29(8), 731–751. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Van Dijk, T. A. (2006). Ideology and discourse analysis. Journal of Political Ideologies, 11(2), 115–140. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Zhou, Y., Reid, E., Qin, J., Chen, H. & Lai, G. (2005). US domestic extremist groups on the Web: link and content analysis. Intelligent Systems, IEEE, 20(5), 44–51. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar