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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1452066

Online Interpersonal Trust and Online Altruistic Behavior in College Students: the Chain Mediating Role of Moral Identity and Online Social Support

Provisionally accepted
Sun Daokai Sun Daokai *Yingying Lin Yingying Lin C.J. Liao C.J. Liao *Lili Pan Lili Pan
  • Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: The prevalence of online altruistic behaviors among the college students has attracted widespread attention. However, the factors influencing this are still unclear. The objective of this study was to explore the relationship and mechanism of online interpersonal trust, moral identity, online social support and online altruistic behavior among college students. Methods: The survey was conducted among 986 Chinese college students using The Interpersonal Trust Scale for the Internet,Moral Identity Scale ,The Internet Social Support Questionnaire for College Students and The Internet Altruistic Behavior Questionnaire for College Students. Results: Moral identity, online social support, online interpersonal trust and online altruistic behavior were significantly positively correlated (r=0.09-0.39, p<0.01). Online social support plays a partial mediating role in the relation between online interpersonal trust and online altruistic behavior, accounting for 33.76% of the total effect, while moral identity and online social support play a chain mediating role in the relation between online interpersonal trust and online altruistic behavior, accounting for 2.23% of the total effect. Conclusion: Online interpersonal trust not only directly affects college students’ online altruistic behavior, but also indirectly influences it through moral identity and online social support.

    Keywords: online interpersonal trust1, moral identity2, online social support3, online altruistic behavior4, College students5

    Received: 20 Jun 2024; Accepted: 02 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Daokai, Lin, Liao and Pan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Sun Daokai, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
    C.J. Liao, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.