Psychosocial Basis of the Online Reputation: a Proposal for a Model and a Case Study

Abstract

The appearance of (1) Internet (2) social networks (3) mobile devices access to networks and (4) numerous applications and software (5) platforms specifically designed to promote social interaction has led the emergence of a new phenomenon of great relevance: online reputation. In recent years it has begun to generate a body of theory and very relevant research in this area (eg. Masun and Tovey, 2012). In this research, we propose a psychosocial model explaining this phenomenon, based on the paradigm of evolutionary psychology. Applying the case method by monitoring online, we empirically analyzed one of the sectors considered the most active in the social media environment (Online Reputation Management: Web, 2012) and we proposed future research.