The Extent of Empathy and Helping Attitudes on Engagement in Clicktivism on Facebook

Abstract

Clicktivism describes how users on social media support online campaigns. This growing activity is demonstrated on Facebook through its abundant features, including the ability to ‘like’ and ‘share’ share content with family and friends. Importantly factors that may predict the extent to which Clicktivism and online activism are engaged in require further exploration. This current research sought to add to the growing literature by investigating the predictive value of empathy and helping attitudes with engagement in Clicktivism on Facebook. A pre-pandemic UK University student sample of 118 females and 46 males participated in an online questionnaire. This questionnaire consisted of an adapted version of the Facebook Frequency and Use of Activities Scale (FFAS), the Adolescent Measure of Empathy and Sympathy (AMES), the Helping Attitudes Scale (HAS) and the Big Five Inventory (BFI-10). A multiple regression analysis revealed cognitive empathy and sympathy predict engagement in Clicktivism on Facebook. Previous expected predictors such as time spent online and level of Facebook use were interestingly not sufficient to significantly predict Clicktivism.