Conceptualizing and Operationalizing TikTok Wisdom - First steps towards a domain-specific Wisdom Scale
(R2023-117236)

AUTHORS

Tatjana König, Saarland Business School htw saar; Kristin Manthey, htw saar; Christin Fahim, German University Cairo; Liesa Grund, htw saar (Saarland Business School htw); Noha El-Bassiouny, German University in Cairo

ABSTRACT

Transformative Consumer Research has specified the ancient concept of Wisdom for application in the consumer domain. The concept has gained increased attention as Cyber Wisdom for responsible navigation of the internet. The authors specify the four dimensions of this concept (Wisdom Literacy, Reasoning, Self-Reflection, and Motivation) for TikTok Wisdom and propose and test a measurement approach. Based on 270 data sets from a preliminary validation study, Self-Reflection and Motivation could be fully validated. For TikTok Literacy, the authors suggest differentiating between usage and content literacy. Future research may extend the proposed TikTok Wisdom Reasoning scale by one or two items to fully meet measurement criteria. Once the measurement is fully established, it supports researchers, policy-makers, and educators ensuring wise TikTok behavior and thereby avoiding a complete ban by balancing merits and potential risks associated with TikTok.