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Weekly UpdatesPrevious research (LaRose et al., 2003) left the distinction between habit strength and deficient self-regulation unclear. Accordingly, new items were developed by drawing upon theoretical works describing habitual behavior (Aarts et al, 1998; Bargh & Gollwitzer, 1994; Oulette & Wood, 1998) and LaRose et al.'s previous description of deficient self-regulation. The pool of items was subjected to an exploratory principal components factor analysis using varimax rotation. Two interpretable factors emerged, also shown in Table 1. These factors seemed to reflect the distinction between the self-observation subfunction of self-regulation on the one hand and the judgmental process and self-reactive subfunctions on the other hand.
The Internet Self-Efficacy Scale (Eastin & LaRose, 2000) was replicated (Table 1). Also from that study, a measure of Internet experience was computed by asking the number of years and months it had been since the respondent first started using the Internet.
The dependent Internet usage variable was the sum of the total number of minutes spent on the Internet in the typical weekday, the typical weekend day, and the day prior to the survey. An inspection of the distributions of responses to these items revealed that outliers were present and so a log10(1 + value) transform was applied to each one before summing the three items. The resulting composite index had a Cronbach alpha of .66 (M = 5.17, S.D. = 1.59).
Data Analysis
Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients and exploratory factor analyses were calculated using SPSS version 11.5 (SPSS, Inc., 2002). Structural equation analysis was completed with Amos version 4.0 (Arbuckle, 1999).
Results
Pearson product-moment correlations among the independent and dependent variables are shown in Table 2 and the results of structural equation modeling are shown in Figure 1. The model shown was a good fit to the data ([chi square] = 62.3, df = 34, RMSEA = .994, CFI = .071). As hypothesized, Internet usage was directly predicted by expected Internet outcomes ([rho] = .29), Internet habit strength ([rho] = .26), and deficient Internet self-regulation ([rho] = .15). The individual activity (r = .40), monetary (r = .27), novel (r = .36), social (r = .44), self-reactive (r = .46), and status (r = .53) expected outcome categories all had significant (p < .001) zero-order correlations with usage. Expected Internet outcomes were a second-order factor consisting of status, activity, self-reactive, social, novel sensory, and monetary incentives, preceded by Internet self-efficacy ([rho] = .55). Internet habit strength was predicted by expected Internet outcomes ([rho] = .26). Deficient self-regulation predicted Internet habit strength ([rho] = .39) and was itself causally determined by self-reactive outcomes ([rho] = .43). Finally, Internet self-efficacy was also predicted by prior Internet experience ([rho] = .38). However, the hypothesized relationships between prior experience and Internet habit strength was not significant ([rho] = .03, p = .63). The relationship between Internet self-efficacy and habit strength ([rho] = .14, p = .069) narrowly missed significance.
An inspection of the modification indices suggested a causal link from self-efficacy to novel expected outcomes. Since this outcome category represents information seeking on the Internet and the task of seeking useful information is likely to require a high degree of confidence in one's ability, this was accepted as a logical extension to the model. Correlated error terms between self-reactive outcomes and both activity (r = .44) and social outcomes (r = .18), and between novel and monetary outcomes (r = .37), not shown, were added to improve fit. The model explained 42.2% of the variance in the dependent variable, Internet usage.
Discussion
The present results both affirm the uses and gratifications paradigm and extend it to a theory of media attendance grounded in Social Cognitive Theory. A basic implication of uses and gratifications, that media exposure may be predicted from media gratifications, was upheld. Indeed, by instituting new operational measures of expected gratifications, it was possible to predict media consumption to an unprecedented degree. However, new variables from SCT improved the explanatory power of gratifications, here reconstrued as outcome expectations.
Expected activity outcomes, which closely parallel entertainment gratifications in uses and gratifications research, and social outcomes/gratifications were significantly related to usage, as they had been in prior uses and gratifications research involving college students (e.g., Kaye, 1998; Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000), but with more variance explained by the current expected outcomes formulation. Unlike the previous studies, novel outcomes (paralleling information gratifications), self-reactive outcomes (parallel to "pass time" gratifications) were also significantly related to usage, when conceived as expected outcomes of Internet usage. Monetary outcomes, somewhat overlooked in previous research, were also significantly related to usage. Status outcomes, a gratification/outcome dimension identified by SCT but underrepresented in prior uses and gratifications research, had the highest zero-correlations with Internet usage of all. The perceived ability of the Internet to improve one's lot in life thus emerges as a powerful motivating factor for the use of the medium.
Uses and gratifications research, including Internet studies, have tended to subsume habit in other gratifications dimensions, usually under either an entertainment or "pass time" factor. Here, it emerged as a powerful and independent predictor of media exposure even after the effects of gratifications sought/expected outcomes had been accounted for. This finding supports the conceptualization of habit strength as a distinct construct from gratifications/expected outcomes. The correlation between habit strength and expected outcomes perhaps indicated the availability of memories of past active media selection processes, in the form anticipated by uses and gratifications research, that had become dormant with repetition. In this vein, among newer Internet users (those who had been online less than three years) the correlations between expected outcomes and usage were higher than among those with more experience. For example, the correlation between activity outcomes and usage was .54 for new users, compared to .34 for the more experienced ones. This could well indicate that the newer users were making active media selection decisions on the basis of expected outcomes while veteran users had lapsed into more habitual modes of Internet consumption.
The relationship of habit and deficient serf-regulation was further clarified. Habit perhaps indicates a failure of the first of the three subfunctions of serf-regulation proposed by SCT, self-observation. As such, this aspect of unregulated media behavior is closely related to notions of automaticity (Bargh & Gollwitzer, 1994). Deficient self-regulation derives from the failure of the judgmental and self-reactive subprocesses of self-regulation. It reflects a conscious failure of self-control wherein individuals struggle with themselves to judge their own behavior against appropriate standards and to apply incentives to moderate their consumption. The findings supported the proposed theoretical relationship between the two constructs wherein deficient self-regulation adds to habit strength.
Internet self-efficacy causally preceded Internet usage and was in turn determined by prior Internet experience as it was in previous college student samples (Eastin & LaRose, 2000). The hypothesized relationship between self-efficacy and habit strength was not observed, falling just short of statistical significance. It appears that self-efficacy acts on habit strength through expected outcomes. The inattentiveness to one's own behavior that signals habit formation thus could be more determined by a gradual cessation of active thinking about outcomes/gratifications rather than inattentiveness accompanying task mastery.
The lack of a causal connection between experience and habit strength, despite a significant zero-order correlation (r = .30, p < .001), belies the rival "tautology hypothesis" about the role of habit in human behavior; namely, that habit is "just" prior behavior and that relationships between two measures of behavior are not theoretically meaningful. An alternative causal model in which a direct link from experience (prior behavior) to usage (current behavior) was hypothesize also failed to produce a significant relationship, and did not diminish the causal link between habit and usage, again despite a highly significant zero-order correlation (r = .35, p < .001) between experience and usage. These findings suggest that habit strength indeed has an impact on behavior that can be described in social cognitive terms.
The Internet emerges from the present study as something of a distinctive medium, but perhaps not in ways previously described. It is not primarily a social medium (e.g., Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000), but also a medium through which enjoyable activity, self-reactive, monetary, novel (i.e., informational), and, above all, status incentives can be obtained. That the Internet is a medium of social interaction is indisputable, but a question now arises as to the purpose of the social interaction. Prior research surrounding the Internet Paradox (Kraut, Patterson, Lundmark, Kiesler, Mukophadhyay, & Scherlis, 1998) focused on social interaction as a means of securing social support and thereby improving psychological well-being. Now it appears that social status, not social support, might be the prime mover in Internet usage. Perhaps by finding like-minded individuals on the Internet and expressing ourselves in those venues we enhance our social status. Or, recalling Turkle's (1995) Life on the Screen ethnography, perhaps the Internet is a means of constantly exploring and trying out new, improved versions of our selves. From this we should begin to empirically explore online personal development (as self or with virtual others) as well as social maintenance (a support mechanism).
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