Abstract

Techno-social engineering (TSE) theory argues that digital platforms shape and program human behaviors. We provide empirical evidence of this theory by introducing a novel method to conduct in-network studies on Facebook. We manipulate Facebook’s birthday notification system by recruiting confederates to change their birthday to a randomly assigned date and then measure network members’ responses in terms of whether they leave a greeting or question the veracity of the date. TSE theory leads us to expect that more participants will wish happy birthday on the fake date than question its veracity. We explore variables expected to predict heterogeneity in terms of response: prior birthday wish behavior, friends in common between the confederate and participant, and tie strength. All variables are associated with an increased likelihood of responding to the stimulus; however, none of these variables predict how individuals respond. Even participants who knew the confederate’s birthday and tracked it off-line were still tricked by the stimulus. Results offer empirical evidence supporting TSE theory and provide a new method for studying human–computer interaction.

ISSN

0894-4393

Publisher

Sage Publications

DOI

https://10.1177/08944393211008855

Keywords

social networking sites, social media, social ties, human-computer interaction, digital trace data

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