Personality associations with online vs. offline social capital and life satisfaction
Abstract Social capital is an important construct in diverse scientific disciplines for understanding health promotion, entrepreneurship, and economic growth. In an increasingly digitalized world, social capital can be established and used in both online and offline contexts. Previous research sugge...
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2024-12-01
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| Series: | BMC Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-02265-9 |
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| author | Miao Chao Dmitri Rozgonjuk Jon D. Elhai Haibo Yang Christian Montag |
| author_facet | Miao Chao Dmitri Rozgonjuk Jon D. Elhai Haibo Yang Christian Montag |
| author_sort | Miao Chao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Social capital is an important construct in diverse scientific disciplines for understanding health promotion, entrepreneurship, and economic growth. In an increasingly digitalized world, social capital can be established and used in both online and offline contexts. Previous research suggests that personality might be relevant to an understanding of individual differences in social capital. For instance, the literature suggests that extraversion is associated with more social capital. Against this background, the present study aimed to revisit social capital research, but with a broader focus on studying all Big Five Personality traits (assessed with the BFI-45) and their association with bonding (similarity-based relationships), bridging (diversity-based relationships) social capital dimensions, and well-being. Insights in social capital variables in offline and online areas were obtained via the Internet Social Capital Scale and well-being was assessed with Diener’s Satisfaction with Life scale. In particular, the study aimed to understand if personality-well-being associations would emerge with online/offline social capital being a mediator. The questionnaires were filled in by n = 289 German speaking participants (73 males and 216 females). The results revealed that offline social capital in the form of bridging and bonding played a significant role in mediating the relationship between both agreeableness and extraversion with life satisfaction. Online social capital was not associated with life satisfaction and was only very weakly linked to some Big Five Personality traits. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates that offline social capital is very relevant for well-being, while online social capital shows no association with self-reported well-being levels and seems to be negligible for an understanding of well-being. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-38f46f9078cc46499c111abe88130661 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2050-7283 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Psychology |
| spelling | doaj-art-38f46f9078cc46499c111abe881306612025-02-02T12:48:22ZengBMCBMC Psychology2050-72832024-12-011211710.1186/s40359-024-02265-9Personality associations with online vs. offline social capital and life satisfactionMiao Chao0Dmitri Rozgonjuk1Jon D. Elhai2Haibo Yang3Christian Montag4Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal UniversityDepartment of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm UniversityDepartment of Psychology, and Department of Psychiatry, University of ToledoFaculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal UniversityDepartment of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm UniversityAbstract Social capital is an important construct in diverse scientific disciplines for understanding health promotion, entrepreneurship, and economic growth. In an increasingly digitalized world, social capital can be established and used in both online and offline contexts. Previous research suggests that personality might be relevant to an understanding of individual differences in social capital. For instance, the literature suggests that extraversion is associated with more social capital. Against this background, the present study aimed to revisit social capital research, but with a broader focus on studying all Big Five Personality traits (assessed with the BFI-45) and their association with bonding (similarity-based relationships), bridging (diversity-based relationships) social capital dimensions, and well-being. Insights in social capital variables in offline and online areas were obtained via the Internet Social Capital Scale and well-being was assessed with Diener’s Satisfaction with Life scale. In particular, the study aimed to understand if personality-well-being associations would emerge with online/offline social capital being a mediator. The questionnaires were filled in by n = 289 German speaking participants (73 males and 216 females). The results revealed that offline social capital in the form of bridging and bonding played a significant role in mediating the relationship between both agreeableness and extraversion with life satisfaction. Online social capital was not associated with life satisfaction and was only very weakly linked to some Big Five Personality traits. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates that offline social capital is very relevant for well-being, while online social capital shows no association with self-reported well-being levels and seems to be negligible for an understanding of well-being.https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-02265-9Social capitalPersonalityLife satisfactionBig fiveExtraversionAgreeableness |
| spellingShingle | Miao Chao Dmitri Rozgonjuk Jon D. Elhai Haibo Yang Christian Montag Personality associations with online vs. offline social capital and life satisfaction BMC Psychology Social capital Personality Life satisfaction Big five Extraversion Agreeableness |
| title | Personality associations with online vs. offline social capital and life satisfaction |
| title_full | Personality associations with online vs. offline social capital and life satisfaction |
| title_fullStr | Personality associations with online vs. offline social capital and life satisfaction |
| title_full_unstemmed | Personality associations with online vs. offline social capital and life satisfaction |
| title_short | Personality associations with online vs. offline social capital and life satisfaction |
| title_sort | personality associations with online vs offline social capital and life satisfaction |
| topic | Social capital Personality Life satisfaction Big five Extraversion Agreeableness |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-02265-9 |
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