To comment or not to comment?: How virality, arousal level, and commenting behavior on YouTube videos affect civic behavioral intentions

An experiment investigated the effects of commenting behavior, virality, and arousal level on anti-cyberbullying civic behavioral intentions. Participants (N = 98) were exposed to cyberbullying-related YouTube videos that varied in arousal level (low vs. high), number of views (low vs. high), and commenting behavior where they either commented on the video or did not comment after watching it. Participants expressed greater Civic Behavioral Intentions (CBI) upon exposure to highly than lowly arousing videos. Additionally, they expressed greater CBI when instructed to comment on highly arousing videos with high than low views, while those who did not comment on highly arousing videos expressed greater CBI upon exposure to videos with low than high views. As for lowly arousing videos, participants who were instructed to comment expressed greater CBI when the video had low than high views, while those who did not comment did not differ in CBI as a function of the number of views. Viral behavioral intentions (VBI) were the strongest predictors of CBI with degrees that varied as a function of commenting behavior, virality, arousal level, and the interactions among them. Results are discussed within the framework of the relationship between online engagement and offline civic action.