A study of negative emotional disclosure behavior in social network media : will an unexpected negative event and personality matter?

Abstract

Why would people feel the need to disclose their negative emotions? Using the theory of conservation of resources, we hypothesize disclosure intention and behavior would be influenced by duration and severity of the negative emotional state. Moreover, we predict the effect of unexpected events and “the Big Five” personality traits on disclosure intention. Besides disclosure intention, we also tapped if the respondents have disclosed their negative emotions on their Facebook profile. In this study, we surveyed 255 Facebook users on their experiences from negative life events under four categories – social relationship, work, health and monetary issues. The results support all of our hypotheses. In particular, our post-hoc analyses show differences between females and males on the influence mechanism behind their disclosure intention. Females are more likely to disclose their problems relating to social relationship, work and health problems on Facebook than males.