Relação entre comportamento planejado e empatia na intenção de uso de redes sociais

Abstract

The use of social networks has attracted the interest of researchers from various fields, especially social psychology. Given their relational nature and their impact on multiple spheres of everyday life, the way individuals interact in these environments constitutes a fertile ground for investigation. In this context, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has been widely employed to understand human behavior, offering a theoretical framework that, although subject to criticism, allows for the incorporation of complementary variables that expand its applicability. Considering that social networks are essentially relational spaces, and that empathy is a central skill for the quality of human interactions, this study aimed to investigate the articulation between empathic dimensions and the TPB in predicting the intention to use social networks. The variables investigated included the empathic components of Empathic Concern, Personal Distress, Perspective-Taking, and Fantasy, as well as the classic elements of TPB: Attitude, Subjective Norms, and Perceived Behavioral Control. The research was structured in two studies — exploratory and confirmatory — based on the central hypothesis that components of empathy contribute to explaining the Intention to Use social networks. The main objective was to systematize and analyze the literature on Empathy, the Theory of Planned Behavior, and intention to use social networks, and to examine the relationships between these constructs. The dissertation is organized into an introduction and two chapters. The first chapter, theoretical, presents the conceptual foundations regarding the use of social networks, the TPB, Martin Hoffman's theory of empathy, and the articulation between these approaches. The second chapter, empirical, consists of an article encompassing the two studies carried out. In the first study, of an exploratory nature, a factor analysis was conducted that revealed significant relationships between the constructs of empathy and TPB, highlighting the centrality of the Fantasy dimension in the intention to use. The second study, confirmatory in nature, involved a mediation analysis that confirmed the role of Fantasy as a link between intention to use and empathy. Moreover, demographic variables proved relevant in shaping user profiles and were subsequently controlled in the second study. This finding represents an important contribution to the understanding of digital behavior and underscores the potential of Fantasy as an interpretative key in the context of social networks. Finally, the study reinforces the importance of considering sociodemographic variables, digital relationality, and the role of Fantasy in future research and interventions.