Method Section (Before Version)

 

Because many psychologists currently believe there is no best way to see if a reaction is authentic or credible, I decided to look at how people decide if a reactor is authentic or not. I first chose my two reactors and two of their reaction videos. I chose my two reactors based on the amount of followers they had and if I had already seen them before. Follower count was important because it determines how popular the reactor is and if they are able to monetize their videos. The two channels I picked have over 10,000 subscribers (which only about 3.4 percent of channels have) and according to the YouTube Partnership Program, channels have to have at least 1,000 subscribers to potentially monetize videos. The two YouTuber’s I chose are AJayII (who reacts to music) and Imon_Snow (who reacts to movies and TV shows). When deciding which videos to react to, I decided to go with their first ever reaction videos and their most popular ones. I chose the first video because I wanted my participants to see how they began reacting. The second videos I chose are of their most viewed videos. Their most viewed video is important because it shows that others think it is a good reaction.

 To begin this examination, I went through the videos and questions in the order I intended to and got an auto-ethnographic view of the study. Then I created a group study made up of three of my peers. I began my study by letting my participants watch the two selected videos by Imon_Snow. After they completed both videos, I asked them a series of questions about the reactors. They would first write their answers down in a Google or Word document. After they finished, we discussed their answers. The questions I created for this section of the study are: 1) What was your reaction to the reactor? 2) Do you think that their reaction was authentic? 3) Do you think authentic reactions are more credible? and finally? 4) What behaviors are you focusing on when you watch the reactor? If they answered no to question 2, I asked them what they think the reactor can do to make themself more credible. I then proceeded to show them the two videos from AJayII. They continued answering the questions on the document first before I repeated the same questions and conducted a discussion after the videos came to an end. Following the previous discussion, I questioned my participants to compare both sets of reactors. I asked: 1) Now, comparing both reactors, who do you think was more authentic? Why? 2) Which reactor showcased more credible behavior? and 3) Any last thoughts on your reactions to the reactor's behavior? I had my participants send me their documents so I could analyze their responses.