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WHAT WE LISTEN HOW WE SHARE? 1

MKW 422 Music and Positive Media EffectsSabine ReichSpring 2015

What We Listen How We Share:

The Effects of Feel Accepted in the Case of Social Identity

Yusuf Gökberk Ertunç


1487930

MKW 422

Spring 2015


Abstract


There are many theories appeared on social and media

entertainment research to explain why we are consuming music

(Zillmann, 1988) and how we attribute a meaning our music tastes

in the case of music preference based group membership. (Abrams,

2009) Hence, main research question based on this two main

research area on media entertainment and well-being. However this

kind of broad inquiry would not be only too wide, actually it

could easily exceed the limit of sustainable research design.

Actually Baumeister did it by his well-known work “the need to

belong theory” (Baumeister & Leary, 1995) but even if a giant

meta theory could be formulated it is unthinkable to fit this

meta theory in to the just one paper. Based on that assumption we

think up; “how does the feel accepted influences individual’s

online music sharing motives in the case of social identity”

Because it is covers the base two theories of music and positive

media effects – media entertainment and social identity

researches. Also it has a capability to reveal conjunctions

between Baumeister’s “the need to belong” (Baumeister & Leary,

1995) theory and Trepte’s “The Social Identity Theory” (2006) by

discover paths in a newly emerged media area.


Introduction

In our age music listening behavior has been dramatically change.

From the antiquity to invention of gramophone music actually

created and preserved by wandering bards. Homer, the famous

Ionian Hellenic poet’s works Iliad and Odyssey had been taught as

a religious text in ancient Greek.

After the written period of history the second one, religious

music appeared. Religious music especially in Christian and

Islamic empires become an only opportunity to develop and show

and show music abilities. Only exception from that time is

trumpets and annoying sound form shill pipes to give inspiration

to soldiers and instill fear to enemy.


Religious area with great choirs and lots of sacred text based

chants appeared. After 12.century Western music has gained

polyphonic sounds which actually lead by Perotin and many others

composers. Polyphony was a breakthrough in music history which

leads us to baroque era. Johannes Sebastian Bach, Henry Purcell,

Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Georg Philipp Telemann

are most famous composers from that times. Despite the Mozart and

Beethoven continued and improved that music style actually this

history still lives and create new music’s even if we are don’t

aware.

Richard Wagner and famous operas like Der Ring des Nibelungen

(The Ring of the Nibelung) actually opened a new era just before

invention of movies. Because he one of the examples that music is

not only music anymore. Music actually has a capability to evoke

emotions in audience while actual visual media played. It might

be not a new concept but followers of Wagner’s style actually

invented movie music industry.


Bertolt Brecht’s and his well-known play The Threepenny Opera

(Die Dreigroschenoper) actually not only ordinary play written by

Brecht. It also increased repetition of Kurt Weill. After their

exile to US just like many other composers from Germany. Today

most famous composer from Hollywood is Hans Zimmer. He has known

by many well-known Hollywood movies like Inception, Interstellar,

The Dark Knight, The Last Samurai, Gladiator and also The Lion

King.

To sum up this historic evolution of music, music might have

always been as a creator of social identity by religious times to

Hollywood times. Also music used since on the beginning of

history as an altering mood and motivation source.

Relevance


In today, now we are living in the Internet age. We are share and

listen to music. Communication or even listening music is not

only one way process anymore. As we are starting to become

producers not only listeners we just need to understand and

discover underlying motives in that mechanism. The question “Why

we are listening music?” is actually questioned dozens of times

(Zillmann 1988; Knobloch & Zillmann, 2002) but “Why we are

willing to show our music preferences” somehow new question. My

research question is “how does the feel accepted influences

individual’s online music sharing motives in the case of social

identity”.

Only social identity might be enough to get a proper way to see

patterns of our share motives in the Internet but actually we

need to Baumeister’s The Need to Belong Theory (Baumeister &

Leary, 1995) to open a new view of media and entertainment

research. Social Identity Theory (Trepte, 2006) express to

outside of this mechanisms but the need to belong give us to

chance to cultivate some assumptions about underlying mechanisms

in person’s choices.


There are many underlying mechanism be present at personal music

choose and identity. Especially Zillmann and his well-known

research about the mood-management theory (1988) is some kind of

new modern way to understand why people listening music. Mood

management and mood regulation give us to understand individual’s

motives to listen music. But if we include social groups that

individual based explanation need’s to support with a lot of

other group and identity related researches.

However we don’t need to discover the Earth again. Baumeister’s

Need to Belong theory (1995) has merged these two concepts in to

one central idea. So it actually lead us to ask the last question

“How people How does social identity influences individual’s

online music sharing motives to feel accepted?”


Also Ellemers, Kortekaas, Ouwerkerk self-categorization,

commitment to the group and group self-esteem theory (1999) help

us to understand group dynamics in the case of online

environment. As we know people used to perceive themselves and

others friend or foe since beginning of history. With the help of

this theory which is derived by Ellemers we can create some

assumption about online environments and people’s organization on

that social media sites.

Lastly, Trepte’s work on Social Identity Theory (2006) help us to

develop our research question by collecting main concepts about

group relationships and individual’s role in that groups.

Reception process can also give us to great opportunity to use

that as an independent variable.

In conclusion, with the help of these studies we can form a

research question which made by social identity theory and the

need to belong.

Central Concepts


In this exploratory research we define some key concepts to

investigate. “The Social Identity Theory” It actually formulated

by Tajfel and Turner (1979) but in this research we use more

modern and more familiar version from Sabine Trepte’s research

(2006).

Because our main aim on outcomes in Internet based sharing and

Trepte’s research include computer-mediated communication. Trepte

define this concept by “People categorize themselves and others

as belonging to different social groups and evaluate these

categorizations.” (Trepte 2006, p. 255) So it means that people

may only identify themselves by belong one of groups and

cultivate some assumptions towards others.

Second one is reception process. Reception process is define what

we perceive and how we affected by entertainment media. In our

research reception process based on computer-mediated

communication and understanding key points of reception one of

crucial point to measure the effect of social exclusion effects.


Third is self-esteem. Self-esteem is one of key point of this

research. Self-esteem takes a part as depended variable to

understand the effects of social exclusion. It will show

relationship between online sharing and feel acceptance.

Fourth is the social group. From the original research based on

“the social identity theory” (Tajfel Turner, 1979, p. 40) Social

identity theories never consider people as an individual.

According to this study, people behave and even identify

themselves by their social group so we need to examine group and

its relationships not in the concept of individual.

Fifth one is social exclusion. Social exclusion is main obstacle

to achieve feel accepted and it cause severe anxiety. “Insofar as

isolation is a function of the belongingness need, whereas

helplessness is a frustration of control (which is probably

another fundamental motivation). Anxiety and general distress

seem to be a natural consequence of being separated from

important others.” Also social exclusion can cause distress and


also if individuals define themselves by their groups it could

also diminish their social identity.

Moreover Baumeister has found a relationship between jealousy and

anxiety by Mathes, Adams, and Davies (1985) research but he

claims that there are not much support to claim directly this

view.

Furthermore, perception of belonging one of key concept we want

to consider. By reason of need to belonging and also feel

accepted is strongly tied with that concept, we can conduct and

interpret our research with the help of Williams’

“Cyberostracism: Effects of being ignored over the Internet”

research.

Williams’ define ostracized person as a target and ostracize

person as a source so these definitions will also be part of

formulation to give a meaning to feel accepted part of this

study. But in our version we can also aimed to measure public


embarrassment and ridicule just like mentioned in Williams’ study

(2000).

Existing Research

“The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a

Fundamental Human Motivation” (Baumeister 1995) is provide most

of theoretical background for us.

Baumeister’s study indicate most of meta theoretician like Freud

to understand individual’s inside motives, Maslow's hierarchy of

needs (1943) opened our mind to understand people’s fundamental

needs to reach life achievements. Baumeister’s need to belong

theory help us to collect a lot of concepts from a new and

scientific meta theory unlike older famous ones.

“Social Identity Theory”(Trepte 2006) help us to design a

research about identity process by give a meaning to the

influence of social identity on entertainment media presences.

Trepte’s theory helps us to design our research to understand

what people’s motives are to achieve positive social identity.


Individuals not only describe themselves by their knowledge or

what they listen. They actually describe themselves in a social

group. If there are no social groups in fact there are no social

identities.

“Social Identity on a Nation Scale: Optimal Distinctiveness and

young People’s Self-Expression Through Musical Preference”(Abrams

2009) like Trepte’s study give us chance to conduct a group based

experiment.

Abrams actually opened our way by about conducting research in

the area of social identity. Moreover Abrams study give us to

chance to examine self-categorization theory by help us the

modern patterns of developing a music based identity. Abrams

study also showed us “Optimal Distinctiveness Theory” to

understand the new identification mechanisms especially for

younger generations.

By that theory we can assume that only mood-management and to

gain hedonic valance (Zillmann 1988, Knobloch 2002) are not


enough. Even if the mood-management theory enhanced by eudemonic,

experience based views(Rieger, Reinecke, Frichlich, Bente 2014)

opened us to new view if we need to identify and understand

people’s media preferences we still need to consider humans as a

social beings.

“Self-Categorization, Commitment to the Group and Group Self-

Esteem as Related but Distinct Aspects of Social

Identity”(Ellemers, Kortekaas, Ouwerkerk, 1999) help us to

understand underlying mechanism ingroup and outgroup

relationships

With Ellemers’ research we can understand and manipulate group

preferences effects on individuals. We can investigate in group

favoritism and examine the group commitment also intergroup

differentiation. If we are going to conduct a research about

social exclusion it is perfectly fit for the support our main

assumptions.


“Cyberostacism: Effects of Being Ignored over the

Internet”(Williams, 2000) In the end we will replicate the

experiment conditions like William’s Cyberostracism research to

understand the effect of social exclusion.

Cyberostracism research like Baumeister the need to belong

research suggested four fundamental needs to satisfy: Belonging,

Self-Esteem, Control and Meaningful existence. William’s

cyberball game could actually adapt our music share and belonging

study.

Definition of Research Gap

Baumeister’s the need to belong theory (1995) create us to

perceive and develop judgements about general concepts in media

and entertainment theory.

There are many researches based on need to belonging, social

identity theory. In media and entertainment researches we can

define even conduct many experiments to get a proper base to

define that theories. However even if we took Abrams study


“social identity on a nation scale” research (2009), survey

method and target participants are not so suitable. Abrams aimed

to perceive young people’s social identity development but he

choose a way to mail his survey to participants’ houses.

Abrams never mentioned mailing as a drawback of his study but

actually it is actually crucial limitation for social identity

researches. Especially younger generations not only strange mail

based surveys this method could be more time consuming but it’s

effective to directly engage a proper sample from population by

eliminating many of sample error.

Other studies used experimental groups to prove their assumptions

but despite the Abrams study they may have high internal

reliability but their outcomes can be debatable in the case of

external validity.

In our research question “how does social identity influences

individual’s online music sharing motives to feel accepted”


actually based on Internet so even if we want, it is hard to

conduct like Abrams study.

Trepte’s Social Identity Theory (2006) is an explanatory research

and it has not contains some research design to adapt our

research. However it expands our horizon and social identity

based concepts help us to reach a proper jargon to support our

research and its design.

In Ellemers’ Self-Categorization, Commitment to the Group and

Group Self-Esteem research (1999) Ellemers focused on group

relations. In this self-categorization research there are many

group dynamic has been revealed but as a nature of this theory

its position become very far away from individuals. This self-

categorization and commitment research did not investigate

directly the effect of need to belong and acceptance which we

will be included that parts to our research about feel accepted.

Cyberostracism experiment people participated from their isolated

environment and “they were insulated from public embarrassment


and ridicule.”(Williams, 2000) This was effected their experiment

to fail to found support for an affect against control and

meaningful existence. Because of that we will conduct this

experiment in a real life condition to figure out how can we

eliminate or correct this outcome.

Furthermore, people are just do not only listen music anymore.

They are share and wait for appreciation by “likes” and

“comments”. Our music tastes do not only subject of our personal

preferences, actually it is represents our identity on social

media.

Hypotheses

H1: Individual’s shares music based on their targeted social

identity not only their music tastes

From Zillmann’s Mood Management Theory (1988) we know that people

use music as a mood regulator to benefit from its hedonic

valance. However in society or even in social media we have

identities so somehow we feel some kind of need to strict or


broad our music tastes not only in the case of mood management,

to fit a social group with a proper image.

For example a socialist person can share revolutionary songs or

even some traditional music but if that person go beyond that and

shares popular music it could damage that person’s identity and

he/she could not collect “likes” and “comments”.

Furthermore, that situation is actually valid for metal music

listeners. Even if they liked, they have to cover their hard rock

music choice. Because especially with music based niche social

identities are too tender against some kind of deviation.

With this hypothesis we just want to investigate how people

preserve and build their social identity and what is the role of

“optimal distinctiveness theory” (Abrams, 2009)?

H2: Feeling accepted is the main motive sharing music


This assumption based on the question of why we are share music

on social media? According to Zillmann’s Mood Management Theory

(1988; Knobloch 2002) “(a) individuals strive to rid themselves

of bad moods or, at least, seek to diminish the intensity of such

moods, and (b) individuals strive to perpetuate good moods and

seek to maintain the intensity of these moods”. However it is not

explain why we have an inclination to express our music

preferences. Insofar we will investigate the main motivation of

this behavior.

H3: No feedback from multiple music sharing awake a feeling of

social exclusion and causes basic anxiety

According to Self-Categorization Theory (Ellemers, Kortekaas,

Ouwerkerk, 1999), we have perceived and objective popularity. So

if a person does not get much objective popularity it will damage

person’s self-concept. If we consider music sharing as an

achievement by people’s expression in the case of Optimal

Distinctiveness Theory (Abrams, 2009) we can actually interpret

that assumption to the need to belong theory by “People prefer


achievements that are validated, recognized, and valued by other

people over solitary achievements” (Baumeister, 1995, p.498)

Suggested Research Design

Experiments might be good for prove our hypotheses however first

we need to be sure about our hypothesis to found a correct

experiment conditions. So we need to first test our assumptions

is it correct or not.

So for an explanatory research it is good to choose a survey –

personality tests based research to test our three main

hypotheses.

After that we can conduct our research. However on the Internet

it is hard to control participants so we need to simulate this

effect in a controlled environment. First we need to 6 – 12

participants inside one classroom. However 5 – 11 of them

actually will be conductor of research and just one participant

will not aware of that. At the end we will conducted this

experiment with 4 different groups with 12 different original


subjects. Because, to collect as much as sample and eliminate

biases we conducted same condition three times with three

different participants. Praise, rejection and ignore situations

will be tested.

We will say original participant to: “We want measure young

people music choose. So we gathered a focus group to understand

which music genre will be preferred among young people.” However

other participants will aware of our aim and they help us to

manipulate original subject.

These groups will praise, contradict and ignore the music

suggestion of original subjects to affect their self-esteem

level. After the experiment, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale

(Rosenberg, 1965) in Trepte’s Social Identity Theory research

(2006) can be used to determine our subjects self-esteem.

Actually we want to simulate cyberball effect in the case of

music sharing by just turning back to the real life to virtual


one just Williams’ research about cyberostracism (Williams,

2000).

However before starting online experiments, it is a great

opportunity to see the effects of exclusion and need to belonging

on our music preference based self-esteem hypothesis. In

laboratory environment we can get clues to improve our research

methods to conduct a larger version on the Internet.

Conclusion

In conclusion “The Need to Belong” (Baumeister, 1995) and “Social

Identity Theory” (Trepte, 2006) related questions are common in

media and entertainment researches but it needs to be adapt new

media environment to keep update their assumptions and their

results. Because before that media theories does not require a

lot of update and revision just like today. Mediums limited by

newspapers, radios, televisions. They are non-interactive and

easy to texted mediums by reason of their one-way communication

potential.


Because of that reason we need to frequently remake and update

old theories to new ones, especially in the Internet age. So in

this research design we just intend to conduct a research based

on Trepte’s assumptions (Trepte, 2006), Baumeister’s terminology

(Baumeister & Leary 1995), Abrams’ practice (Abrams, 2009),

Ellemers’ group relations (Ellemers, 1999) and Williams’

cyberostracism (Williams, 2000).

Online identities and relations are still waiting to be

investigating further. We hope this new area will be more develop

and be more collaborative with participants just like the essence

of the online environment.


Referances

Trepte, S. (2006). Social identity theory. In J. Bryant & P.

Vorderer (Eds.), Psychology of

entertaintment. (pp. 255-271). Mahwah, NJ US: Lawrence Erlbaum

Associates Publishers.

Baumeister, R:F, Leary, M.R. (1995), The need to belong: Desire

for interpersonal attachments

as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin,

117(3), 497-529. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497

Abrams, D. (2009). Social identity on a national scale: Optimal

distinctiveness and young


people’s self-expression through musical preference. Group

Process & Intergroup Relations, 12(3), 303-317. doi:

10.1177/1368430209102841

Ellemers, N., Kortekaas, P., & Ouwerkerk, J.W. (1999). Self-

categorisation, commitment to the

group and group self-esteem as related but distinct aspects

of social identity. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29(2/3),

371-389.

Williams, Kipling D.; Cheung, Christopher K. T.; Choi, Wilma.

Journal of Personality and

Social Psychology, Vol 79(5), Nov 2000, 748-762

Zillmann, D. (1988). Mood management through communication

choices. American Behavioral

Scientist, 31(3), 327-340. doi: 10.1177/000276488031003005

Knobloch, S., & Zillmann, D. (2002). Mood management via the

digital jukebox. Journal of

Communication, 52(2), 351-366. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-

2466.2002.tb02549.x

Rieger, D., Reinecke, L., Frischlich, L., & Bente, G. (2014).

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being linking with hedonic and eudemonic entertainment

experience to media-induced

recovery and vitality. Journal of Communication, 64(3),

456-478. doi:

10.1111/jcom.12097

Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. (1979). An integrative theory of

intergroup conflict. In W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.),

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CA: Brooks/Cole.


22.06.2015

Hereby I declare that I have written this thesis by my own.

Furthermore, I confirm that no other sources have been used than

those specified in the thesis itself. This thesis, in same or

similar form, has not been available to any audit authority yet.

Ich versichere, dass ich die Arbeit selbstständig und ohne

Benutzung anderer als der angegebenen Hilfsmittel angefertigt

habe. Alle Stellen, die wörtlich oder sinngemäß aus


Veröffentlichungen in schriftlich er oder elektronischer Form

entnommen sind, habe ich als solche unter Angabe der Quelle

kenntlich gemacht. Mir ist bekannt, dass im Falle einer falschen

Versicherung die Arbeit mit „nicht ausreichend" bewertet wird.

Ich bin ferner damit einverstanden, dass meine Arbeit zum Zwecke

eines Plagiatsabgleichs in elektronischer Form versendet und

gespeichert werden kann.

Yusuf Gökberk Ertunç