From Influencers to Lecturers: Understanding Public Attitudes Toward Digital vs. Traditional Jobs

TL;DR

This study investigates public perceptions of digital jobs versus traditional jobs, revealing digital roles are viewed less favorably and as more threatening, with attitudes influenced by contact, usefulness, and perceived threat.

Contribution

It combines social psychology and information systems theories to explain factors shaping attitudes toward digital versus traditional jobs, highlighting mediators and moderators.

Findings

Digital jobs are perceived as less hard-working and less useful.

Contact with digital workers reduces perceived threat and improves attitudes.

Perceptions vary across job types, with lecturers viewed most positively.

Abstract

The rapid expansion of high-speed internet has led to the emergence of new digital jobs, such as digital influencers, fitness models, and adult models who share content on subscription-based social media platforms. Across two experiments involving 1,002 participants, we combined theories from social psychology and information systems to investigate how digital jobs are perceived compared to matched established jobs, and predictors of attitudes toward those jobs (e.g., symbolic threat, contact, perceived usefulness). We found that individuals in digital professions were perceived as less favorably and less hard-working than those in matched established jobs. Digital jobs were also regarded as more threatening to societal values and less useful. The relation between job type and attitudes toward these jobs was partially mediated by contact with people working in these jobs, perceived usefulness, perception of hard work, and symbolic threat. These effects were consistent across both experiments, and various moderators: openness to new experiences, attitudes toward digitalization, political orientation, and age. Among the nine jobs examined, lecturers were perceived as most positive, while adult models were viewed as least positive. Overall, our findings demonstrate that integrating theories from social psychology and information systems can enhance our understanding of how attitudes are formed.