[01] Renee Buster, Health Promotion and Kinesiology, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, United States. [02] Elizabeth Wachira, Department of Health and Human Performance, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Commerce, United States. [03] Paul Yeatts, Center for Research Design and Analysis, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, United States.

Background: There is a cultural shift happening in which social media has overtaken television as the main source of information, as surveyed of 18- to 24- year-olds. Today, 7 in 10 Americans use social media, an increase of 60% usage since 2005. With the increased usage in social media, it is important to examine the impact it has on society. Objective: This study aims to explore the relationship between social media and cross-cultural world-mindedness. The authors wanted to investigate the degree to which cultural perception was impacted by social media use by addressing social cognitive theory and media systems dependency theory. Specifically, the investigators wanted to assess if the type and amount of social media, or media dependence, influenced cultural world-mindedness. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis examined social media use and dependence, perception of environmental protection, tolerance of diversity, world citizenship, and resource sharing. Results: Results indicated there was a weak, negative relationship between environmental protection and social media use and dependence; a weak, positive relationship between world citizenship and social media use and dependence; and a weak, positive relationship between resource sharing and social media factors. To examine political affiliation differences in world-mindedness, a one-way ANOVA was conducted. Results indicated that overall, group differences were present, F (4, 1183) = 98.40, p <.001, η² =.25. Based on the effect size (η²), it was apparent that a large effect was present. Post hoc testing using Bonferroni comparisons indicated that republicans were significantly lower in world-mindedness than all other groups, p <.001. Conclusion: The strongest predictor of world-mindedness was political affiliation, with weaker relationships found between social media frequency and environmental protection, world citizenship, and resource sharing. The frequency of social media may be less important than the selection of media messages.

Media Systems Dependency Theory (MSDT), Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), Cross-cultural World-mindedness, Social Cognition, Social Media

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