Help me, im fat! social support in online weight loss networks
Journal of Consumer Behaviour, J. Consumer Behav. 10: 332–337 (2011)Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/cb.374
Help me, I’m fat! Social support in online weight loss networks
PAUL W. BALLANTINE* and RACHEL J. STEPHENSONDepartment of Management, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
Social networks have become an increasingly common way for people to share information and seek emotional support for issues surround-ing weight loss. This study aims to explore how users of a commercial social networking site who are focussed on weight loss give and/orreceive social support to/from other users. The authors use quantitative data from 145 members of the Weight Watchers Facebook page toexplore how social support is both given and received, and the communication style by which this is achieved. This study reveals threegroups—Passive Recipients, Active Supporters and Casual Browsers. Passive Recipients receive a high level of informational and emo-tional support but do so by being passive communicators. Active Supporters also receive a high level of both informational and emotionalsupport yet are more active in their communication style. Casual Browsers receive little social support and exhibit a passive communicationstyle. Thus, the authors find evidence that even though members of a social network may share a common interest, the way members chooseto participate and interact, and the benefits they accrue by doing so differ substantially. Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
networking sites have to offer. For example, Barak et al. (2008) highlighted several attributes of the Internet that can
The Internet has become an increasingly popular tool for indi-
be described using a common concept, disinhibition, which
viduals wishing to seek information, share experiences, ask
allows us to understand why individuals differ in what they
questions and provide emotional support about health issues
say and do online, compared to what they say and do in a
(Turner et al., 2001; Eysenbach et al., 2004; Jayanti and
face-to-face setting. The reasons for this difference in behav-
Singh, 2010). A key reason for this is that the Internet has
iour include factors like anonymity, invisibility, delayed reac-
many attributes that can help people feel more comfortable
tions, solipsistic introjections and the neutralising of status.
with openly expressing their problems and concerns (Hwang
All these factors can facilitate support for those users of an
et al., 2010; Wu et al., 2010). Within the broad category of
online community who are experiencing similar difficulties,
health issues, online support groups and communities have
such as issues surrounding weight loss.
become an increasingly common way for individuals to share
The potential role of the Internet as a mechanism for
information and seek emotional support for issues surrounding
social support on health-related conditions was highlighted
weight loss (Wright et al., 2010). Many of these online
by Wangberg et al. (2007). The authors examined the rela-
exchanges are facilitated by social networking sites such as
tionship between Internet use, social support and subjective
Facebook, which allow users to leave their network friends
health, with their results suggesting that the Internet has both
private and public messages, share photos and become mem-
a direct positive relationship to subjective health, as well as
bers of a wide range of interest groups.
an indirect positive relationship, mediated through social
Social networking sites have also helped commercial orga-
support. Moreover, the role of weak social ties, which occur
nisations meet consumer demands by giving them the oppor-
when people who are not interpersonally close interact in a
tunity to become more personal, provide consumers with
limited way within certain contexts, was examined by Wright
support, and get direct information about their consumers’
et al. (2010) in terms of the role they have on the perceived
wants (Moran and Gossieaux, 2010). Health organisations
stress of participants in a health-related online support group.
such as Weight Watchers are also using these sites to provide
Contrasted with strong social ties, which are present in close
a means of communication for their members to give and re-
relationships (i.e. family and friends), the authors found that
ceive social support. The purpose of this research is to explore
participants preferred support from weak ties while online, as
how users of a commercial social networking site who are
they provided benefits such as access to different viewpoints,
focussed on weight loss give and/or receive social support
objective feedback, reduced risk and reduced role obliga-
to/from other users. We achieve this through a quantitative
tions. Due to the sensitivity often associated with health-
examination of users of the Weight Watchers Facebook page.
related issues, strong ties were found to act as a barrier togaining social support.
Social support can be described as a type of interpersonal
Coulson et al. (2007) observed that there has been a prolifera-
exchange that can make an individual feel either loved,
tion of health-related information on the Internet. Reasons why
esteemed, accepted, valued or motivated (Teoh et al., 2009).
individuals seek health-related information on the Internet can
In the context of weight loss, social support has been linked
be attributed to some qualities that the Internet and social
to better health outcomes and as having a positive effect onweight loss behaviour and weight maintenance (Teoh et al.,
*Correspondence to: Paul W. Ballantine, Department of Management, Uni-
2009). For example, Wing and Jeffery (1999) explored the
versity of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand. E-mail: paul.ballantine@canterbury.ac.nz
benefits of social support for weight loss and maintenance
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Social support in online weight loss networks
by assigning a standard behavioural weight loss treatment to
Hwang et al. (2010) identified four main types of social sup-
participants who were grouped with friends and family, and
port: informational, emotional, instrumental and appraisal,
the same treatment to those who participated alone. They
and this study will focus on the two most frequent types given
found that those with social support (the grouped participants)
and received within an online support group (Buchanan
lost more weight and maintained their weight loss, compared
and Coulson, 2007): informational and emotional. Infor-
to those who participated alone. More recently, Moisio and
mational support includes activities such as advice giving,
Beruchashvili (2010) described weekly Weight Watchers sup-
referral to experts, situation appraisal and teaching (Coulson
port groups as being both a spiritual and therapeutic compan-
et al., 2007), while emotional support includes aspects such
ion, which gave them an aura of indispensability in members’
as empathy, concern, caring, love and trust (Dalgard, 2010).
lives. However, the above studies focussed on the role of
Beyond the types of social support given and received,
face-to-face support groups, and it is not yet known if social
users within an online community also differ with regard to
support plays a similar role in online environments.
their preferred type of communication, in that users can
The Internet can be considered both an active communica-
adopt either active or passive roles. The purpose of this study
tion medium and a passive one (Wangberg et al., 2007). Sim-
is to explore how users of a commercial social networking
ilarly, the way that individuals give and/or receive support
site who are focussed on weight loss give and/or receive so-
online can further be described as being active or passive.
cial support to/from other users. We do this by exploring
Active social support occurs when participants are interact-
how users of the Weight Watchers Facebook page give
ing with others in their online social network. An example
and/or receive both informational and emotional support to/
of this interaction is when a participant comments on a mes-
from other members and the active or passive communica-
sage another participant has written on the ‘wall’ of an online
tion roles they take in doing so. By addressing this aim and
social network. Within online communities, authors have
in keeping with the theme of this special issue, we hope to
shown that the reciprocity of social interactions positively
shed further light on the different types of interaction that
affects loyalty towards an online community (Chan and Li,
can occur in online social networks.
2010; Shen et al., 2010), and how the shared values of com-munity members can enhance both trust and relationshipcommitment (Wu et al., 2010). In contrast to those memberswho actively participate, online communities can also pro-
vide a learning function (and means of social support) forthose individuals who decide to read and not contribute to
This study took a quantitative approach, where an online
the social interactions taking place, and who are often
survey was administered to users of the Weight Watchers
Facebook page. To help recruit participants, an introductory
Lurking behaviour, wherein people browse websites in a
message was posted on the wall of the Weight Watchers
read-only mode, usually occurs because people want to learn
Facebook page that outlined the purpose of this study. The
about a community or topic, or want to gain a sense of
message was posted approximately two times each day dur-
belonging (Rafaeli et al., 2004). In essence, a person who
ing the data collection period to ensure the continuous expo-
lurks still receives social support, albeit passively, suggesting
sure of the introductory message, given the high volume of
that they should be considered when investigating how peo-
posting activity by members. The introductory message also
ple receive support in an online social network. The effec-
included a survey link, which provided further information
tiveness of passive support has been evidenced by authors
on the survey and a consent form. To encourage participa-
like Hwang et al. (2010), who found that the weight loss tes-
tion, a random prize draw was held where three partici-
timonies of others played a prominent role in participants’
pants who had completed the survey were awarded a $50
Amazon.com voucher. After a survey period of two weeks,
The notion of passive support is similar to the idea of
the introductory message was removed from the wall of the
parasocial relationships, a one-sided relationship that can oc-
cur between a media user and the media being consumed,which has been examined in the context of online communi-ties (Ballantine and Martin, 2005). Passive support is also
conceptually similar to the description of two community
The survey was formulated using Qualtrics, which provides
member types, devotees (i.e. members who lack an interest
a platform for designing, distributing and evaluating online
in other users, yet have considerable interest in the focal
surveys. The survey was divided into three main sections
activity) and tourists (i.e. members who have only a passing
and was designed to take approximately 5 minutes to com-
interest in the focal activity and little interest in other users),
plete. The first section covered general questions about why
which Kozinets (1999) outlined in his seminal research on
and how participants use the Weight Watchers Facebook
virtual communities of consumption. With both devotees
page. The second section covered questions based on the
and tourists having weak social ties to an online community,
participants’ communication style and the types of support
it can be argued that many social network users may prefer to
they sought from an online weight loss network. The last
observe rather than interact in network discussions.
section concluded with questions about the participants’
Online communities and social networks have the ability
demographics (i.e. gender and age), Facebook usage and
to provide different types of social support to their members.
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
fully complete the questionnaire. In terms of demographic
Several scales were developed specifically for this research, as
characteristics, 98 per cent of participants were female. Parti-
the constructs were not developed in the literature. An eight-
cipants aged 31–40 were most common (37%), followed by
item measure was developed to capture the informational sup-
21–30 (23%), 41–50 (21%) and 51–60 (14%). Most partici-
port construct based on the exploratory research of Hwang
pants used Facebook for 1–10 hours per week (58%), followed
et al. (2010). Emotional support was also measured with an
by 11–25 hours (30%), with 85 per cent of participants rating
eight-item scale developed from Hwang et al. (2010). Com-
their Internet ability as being good or very good.
munication style was measured with an eight-item scale devel-
Principal components analysis (with Varimax rotation)
oped from the work of Rafaeli et al. (2004), who examined
was used to assess the underlying structure of the measures
active and passive users within online communities. All items
used. Based on this analysis, a three-factor solution emerged.
were measured using a five-point Likert scale anchored
These factors explained 65 per cent of the variance, with all
strongly agree to strongly disagree, with exploratory factor
eigenvalues being over 1, all items loading heavily onto
analysis being used to refine the scales. The scale items used
one of the factors, and with all factors also being easily inter-
in this study are provided in Table 1.
pretable. Table 2 provides the factor loadings for each of thescale items. The dimension of informational support wasfound to contain eight items, emotional support containedfive items, while communication style contained three items.
Measures were then assessed for their internal consistencyusing the Cronbach’s alpha reliability procedure (Cronbach,
The online survey website was left open for a period of two
1951). Table 3 reports the means, standard deviations and
weeks during September 2010, and at the end of this time,
reliabilities of all the measures used in this study.
168 surveys were submitted. Of these, 145 surveys were suit-
To determine if participants held common perceptions
able for inclusion in the final sample, with 23 surveys being
about informational support and emotional support, and com-
removed due to systematic response patterns or a failure to
munication style, cluster analysis was used to uncover any sim-ilarities that might be used to help identify distinct groupswithin the sample. These groups were identi
two-step procedure (e.g. Milligan, 1980; Hair et al., 2006).
First, hierarchical cluster analysis using Ward’s method was
I use this page to gain information about how I should be exercising
applied to the mean item scores of the three factors. Adopting
I find out valuable dietary information on this page.
‘stopping rule’ (e.g. Hair et al., 2006), the changes in the
This page helps me understand which foods I should and shouldn’t
within-cluster sum of squares suggested three clusters as an
initial solution. Second, K-means cluster analysis was then
This page provides me with effective weight loss information.
used to fine-tune the clusters assuming three groups. The mean
If I have a question related to losing weight, I can usually find the
factor scores for each of these three groups are provided in
I use this page for information about suggested activities to lose
were developed based upon these mean ratings, and the results
The information provided by other members of this page helps me
of a series of analyses of variance (using post-hoc Scheffe tests)
to identify any pairwise differences in mean factor scores.
I get good tips on how to lose weight from this page.
The members of the first group (Passive Recipients) were
found to have the highest informational support ratings. They
Using this page makes me feel important. I feel that members of this page care about me as they can relate to
had similar ratings on emotional support to the Active Sup-
porters but with high communication style scores (indicating
I gain a feeling of acceptance from using this page.
a preference for a passive communication style). Overall,
I use this page to receive comfort from others when I am
people in this group received a high level of informational
disappointed with my weight loss outcomes.
and emotional support from the Weight Watchers Facebook
When I want to express my feelings, I use this page. People on this page give me encouragement to lose weight.
page but did so by being passive members of this social net-
People using this page are sympathetic towards me.
work. There were 68 participants in this group (46.9% of the
Seeing the success of others on this page helps me stay on my
sample). The second group (Active Supporters) also per-
ceived high informational and emotional support benefits
but had the lowest communication style scores (indicating a
I prefer to observe rather than post messages on this page. I use this page by observing discussions that are taking place.
preference for an active communication style). Thus, they
I would classify myself as an interactive user of this page.
received a high level of both informational and emotional
I like to express my opinions on this page.
support from the Weight Watchers Facebook page but did
I do not interactively communicate on this page as I have nothing to
so by being active members of this social network. There
were 47 participants in this group (32.4% of the sample).
If I have advice to give in regards to what someone has posted, Iwill comment.
The final group (Casual Browsers) had the lowest informa-
I would classify myself as a user who browses this page.
tional and emotional support scores, while also having the
If I have a weight related question I want answered, I will post a
highest communication style scores (indicating a preference
question on this page to get a response.
for a passive communication style). Overall, they received
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Social support in online weight loss networks
Table 3. Means, standard deviations and reliabilities of measuresused
understand which foods Ishould and shouldn’t beeating to lose weight. This page provides me
Table 4. Final cluster centres (mean factor scores for each cluster)
with effective weightloss information.
information about how Ishould be exercising tolose weight.
little social support from the Weight Watchers Facebook
page, while being passive users of this social network. There
were 30 participants in this group (20.7% of the sample).
To further understand the characteristics of each of the
three groups, the demographic information provided by par-
ticipants was used to see if any demographic differences
existed between the groups. No differences were found in
terms of participant gender, age, Facebook usage or level
of Internet ability. Additional comparisons were made be-
answers on this page. I gain a feeling of
tween the groups in terms of their Facebook usage. When
asked how long they had been a member of the Weight
Watchers Facebook page, Active Supporters were found to
have been members the longest (w2 = 12.733, p = 0.047)
when compared to both Passive Recipients and Casual Brow-
as they can relate to whatI am experiencing.
sers. When asked to rate their level of satisfaction with the
Weight Watchers Facebook page, Passive Recipients were
the most positive, followed by Active Supporters and Casual
Browsers (F = 9.432, p = 0.000). Active Supporters were
found to be the most likely to post messages on the Weight
question I want answeredI will post a question
Watchers Facebook page, followed by Passive Recipients
and Casual Browsers (F = 27.346, p = 0.000). Similarly, Active
Supporters were found to be more likely to leave comments on
the messages posted by others, followed by Passive Recipients
and Casual Browsers (F = 21.185, p = 0.000).
when I am disappointedwith my weight lossoutcomes. I use this page by
observing discussionsthat are taking place.
The Weight Watchers Facebook page examined in this study
provides an online social network for members to give and/or
receive social support to/from other users. When the type of
social support given and/or received was examined in con-
junction with communication style, three distinct groups of
users were found to exist. Passive Recipients received a high
level of informational and emotional support from theWeight Watchers Facebook page but did so by being passivemembers. Active Supporters also received a high level ofboth informational and emotional support, but unlike Passive
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Recipients, they did so by being active members of this
social network initially perceived the introductory message
social network. Finally, the Casual Browsers received little
as spam, which may also have led some users to decide not
social support from the Weight Watchers Facebook page
and were passive users of this online forum.
While this study provides an initial understanding of how
No demographic differences were found between any of
users of a commercial social networking site who are
the three groups. However, Active Supporters were found
focussed on weight loss give and/or receive social support
to have been members of the Weight Watchers Facebook
to/from other users, some constructs were not included that
page the longest. Similarly, this group of users was also
could shed further light on this topic. For example, dimen-
found to be the most likely to post messages in this social
sions of trust (e.g. Wu et al., 2010) could be included in order
network, as well as being the most likely to respond and
to understand how members of the three groups identified in
provide comments on the messages posted by others. In this
this study perceive the information provided by others. This
respect, the actions of this group support the findings of Chan
would allow researchers to understand why some members
and Li (2010) and Shen et al. (2010), who showed that the
did (or did not) value the informational and emotional support
reciprocity of social interactions (i.e. more involvement with
members of the group) can positively affect loyalty in anonline community.
This study also provides some support to the findings of
Wright et al. (2010), as two of the groups in this study
(Passive Recipients and Casual Browsers) exhibited a styleof communication which suggests that they did not feel
The results of this study highlight how a social network can
strong social ties to the Weight Watchers Facebook page.
provide informational and emotional support to its members,
Thus, rather than actively post and comment on the messages
even though users may differ in how they provide this support
posted by other group members, both of these groups pre-
to other members (if indeed they do). Thus, while some mem-
ferred to browse and observe the messages posted by others.
bers of a social network may take an active role in providing
However, even though they preferred to take a passive com-
as well as receiving social support, the results of this study
munication role, the Passive Recipients clearly valued the
suggest that many members also accrue informational and
informational and emotional support they experienced from
emotional benefits by taking the role of a passive recipient.
this social network. In this respect, the Passive Recipients
Indeed, the benefits enjoyed by being a member of a social
group took the role of lurkers, in that the social network
network can still be obtained by those users who choose to
provided a learning function, as well as a means of social
act as passive observers of the social exchanges of others.
support, even though they typically did not return the social
This study also adds to the literature on how the Internet can
support they received from the Weight Watchers Facebook
serve as a mechanism for health-related outcomes. Although
page. This finding shares similarities with the arguments pro-
the focus of this study was on how users of a commercial social
vided by Ballantine and Martin (2005) regarding parasocial
networking site who are focussed on weight loss give and/or
interaction in online communities. Even though the relation-
receive social support to/from other users, the findings of this
ship between Passive Recipients and those members who
study might also be applied in other online contexts where
posted on the social network was typically one-sided and
social support can play a key role. For marketers interested in
non-reciprocated, it was evident that they valued the infor-
understanding how consumers use social media, this study
mational and emotional support that was available. This
highlights how consumers may obtain beneficial outcomes
usage of a social network is also similar to the devotees iden-
from using an online social network, even though they may
tified by Kozinets (1999): members who have little interest in
appear to be taking a non-active role. With many companies
other users yet have considerable interest in the activity being
choosing to have an online presence through social networking
discussed. In contrast, the smallest group identified in this
sites such as Facebook, it is important that such companies are
study, the Casual Browsers, was conceptually similar to the
aware of the different ways that consumers may choose to
tourists described by Kozinets (1999). Thus, while they had
interact and provide support to each other, and the benefits they
little interest in taking an active communication role, the
results suggest that they gained little social support fromthe Weight Watchers Facebook page.
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