Sexually Explicit User-Generated Content: Understanding Motivations and Behaviors using Social Cognitive Theory

Joseph M. Sirianni; Arun Vishwanath

doi:10.5817/CP2012-1-7

Sexually Explicit User-Generated Content: Understanding Motivations and Behaviors using Social Cognitive Theory

Vol.6,No.1(2012)

Joseph M. Sirianni Arun Vishwanath

https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2012-1-7

How to Cite:

Sirianni, J. M., & Vishwanath, A. (2012). Sexually Explicit User-Generated Content: Understanding Motivations and Behaviors using Social Cognitive Theory. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 6(1), Article 7. https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2012-1-7

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Abstract

Technological advances by Web 2.0 media and mobile phones have recently enabled users to become producers of their own media content. Users are able to create and share photos and videos with speed and ease. A much different trend has emerged with these new technological affordances, though. Individuals are utilizing this new media and are creating and sharing sexually explicit user-generated content (SEUGC) of themselves. Four hundred undergraduate students completed an online survey to assess their likelihood to create and share SEUGC in the future. Social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) was the framework used to analyze the factors that propel this behavior. Results suggest the influence of viewing pornography, sexual self-efficacy, and entertainment and arousal outcomes as triggers and motivators for engaging in this behavior. The model also revealed a desensitization effect towards negative consequences that might occur from creating and sharing SEUGC.

Keywords:
social cognitive theory; user-generated content; sexuality; mobile phones; Web 2.0; cybersex

Author biographies

Joseph M. Sirianni

Joseph M. Sirianni is a second year PhD student in the Department of Communication at the University at Buffalo SUNY. His interests in exploring the influence of new technology on sexual behavior have contributed a unique area of research to the department. In addition to serving as an undergraduate instructor of mass media and colloquium organizer for the UB Communication Graduate Student Association, he is involved in Project Daytime - a research program devoted to preserving the daytime soap opera.

Arun Vishwanath

Dr. Arun Vishwanath's research focuses on consumer behavior and consumer information processing. His contributions to diffusion theory included statistical models that predict adoptive behavior and innovator personality, methods to accurately measure the barriers to adoption, and scales for measuring innovativeness, information search efficacy, and related behavior. Dr. Vishwanath has written and presented over two dozen articles on diffusion theory and consumer information processing in leading communication and information systems journals and conferences.

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