Aki Koivula

University of Turku | UTU · Department of Social Research

Background: The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has dramatically changed societies in 2020. Since the end of February, Europe has been hit particularly hard by COVID-19, but there are major country differences in both the spread of the virus and measures taken to stop the virus. Social psychological factors such as institutional trus...

Current literature suggests problematic social media use (PSMU) predicts reduced social and psychological well-being. Lonely people are more prone to experience the negative outcomes of PSMU, but only few studies have focused explicitly on how loneliness affects the relationship between PSMU and subjective well-being experiences. In this paper, we...

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on well-being and mental health are a concern worldwide. This article is based on two longitudinal studies that investigated the role of social media use in loneliness and psychological distress before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study 1 utilized nationally representative 3-point longitudinal data (n = 735) co...

In this study, we explored the longitudinal relationship of political trust and subjective political competence during the COVID-19 outbreak. We also examined how levels of political trust and political competence were associated with compliance with COVID-19 recommendations. We used three-wave panel data including 2,205 observations (N = 735) to s...

Neighbourhoods can provide a sense of belonging to a local community and support subjective well‐being. Our goal was to gain novel insight into the value of neighbourhood information and communication technology (ICT) in combating loneliness. Furthermore, we were interested in how a sense of belonging to a local community can be a potential mediati...

Social media platforms have become significant media for participating in society. This, and society’s digitalization overall, has resulted in concerns regarding access and inclusion. By combining theories of social media participation and digital inequality, we explore issues regarding the prerequisites of participating through social media platfo...

The emergence of fake news has systematically challenged traditional media institutions as disinformation and misinformation are increasingly utilised in political attacks on social media. As in many countries, also in Finland, the emergence of current counter media sites is closely connected to the rise of the anti-immigration movement, and immigr...

Kryptovaluuttojen kasvava suosio on merkittävä trendi 2020-luvulla. Tälle heikosti säännellylle talouden osa-alueelle on virrannut lyhyessä ajassa huomattava määrä varallisuutta. Tässä artikkelissa eritellään Bitcoin-markkinan erityisominaisuuksia sekä kuvataan Bitcoinista nousevia luottamussuhteita. Bitcoin on syntynyt yhteiskunnallisten ja poliit...

Has the use of social media intensified and increased appearance-related pressures during the Covid-19 pandemic? A growing body of research has suggested that body image concerns and disordered eating have increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the potential pathways includes an increase in social media use. However, examinations of this pa...

Purpose This study aims to explore the potential that acting proenvironmentally protects adolescents from developing materialistic value. Design/methodology/approach Convenience sampling was adopted to collect data from two randomly selected secondary schools in central China. A total of 784 participants were included in the survey. Findings The...

This paper compares data and results from two different survey modes: a probability sampled postal survey and a nonprobability sampled online panel. Our main research objective was to explore if there are differences between the sample methods in terms of nonresponse, item response bias, and selectivity. Both the postal survey and online panel data...

Suomalaiset eroavat kiihtyvään tahtiin maan isoimmasta uskonnollisesta yhdyskunnasta. Eroilmoitusten yhteydessä tallennettujen erosyiden analyysi paljastaa, että yleisimmät syyt erota evankelis-luterilaisesta kirkosta liittyvät talouteen ja hyötyyn. Ensi sijassa kyse ei siis ole kohujen yhteydessä tapahtuvista eroamisista tai arvokonservatiivien ja...

Class cleavage has been an important factor in forming the West‐European party systems, and class identification can still be considered one of the key types of social identity, especially among members of older parties. Nevertheless, previous research has ignored the importance of party members' class identifications. In this study, we hypothesise...

Sosiologia, Psykologia ja Kansantaloudellinen aikakauskirja ovat kaikki tunnettuja suomalaisia oman tieteenalansa pitkään ilmestyneitä aikakauslehtiä. Harvoin niistä on kuitenkaan tehty vertailevaa tutkimusta pitkällä aikavälillä. Hannu Lehti ja tutkimusryhmä ovat tähän työhön ryhtyneet ansiokkaalla tavalla. He ovat vertailleet näissä lehdissä julk...

In this article, we examine how political trust is associated with participation in political discussions on social media and voting activity. We explore whether social media can provide platforms for those who are passive in terms of formal political participation. Our data were derived from a representative survey based on a sample collected in 2...

According to criminological research, online environments create new possibilities for criminal activity and deviant behavior. Problematic social media use (PSMU) is a habitual pattern of excessive use of social media platforms. Past research has suggested that PSMU predicts risky online behavior and negative life outcomes, but the relationship bet...

Increasingly, people must interact with robot technologies. In this research, we examined attitudes toward robots as equipment and as coworkers and whether these attitudes are affected by the autonomy of the robot among participants living in the United States (Study 1: N = 1003; Study 2: N = 969). Study 1 revealed that respondents had a more posit...

In this article we introduce a novel measure, which we call ‘occupation-congruent appearance’ (OCA). We argue that the measure captures the appearance norms of looking ‘right’ for a particular occupation. Using a combination of large-scale photograph data (N=1,411) and rating data (N=7,920) from Finland, including 387,542 individual ratings, we sho...

Gambling is a potential hazard to life satisfaction, yet peer relationships online might buffer this risk. This study analyzed the ways problem gambling is associated with life satisfaction as well as the extent to which the use of online-gambling community participation and, alternatively, offline belonging affect this association. A web-based sur...

In this study, we examine how political party preference and politically active social media use associate with social media behaviors – namely, conformist, provocative, and protective – in the context of the current political sphere in Finland. In our empirical analysis, we use a nationally representative dataset collected from 3,724 Finnish citiz...

Based on the life history theory, this study is aimed at examining the associations among childhood subjective socioeconomic status, adulthood pro-environmental behavior, and commercial insurance purchase. We used the data from the 2013 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS2013) and obtained a sample of 11,172 respondents, with ages ranging from 18 t...

The emergence of artificial intelligence and robotization is prospected to transform societies remarkably. This study examined the associations between perceived robot attitudes of other people, perceived robot use self-efficacy, and attitudes toward robots. An online survey was collected from respondents living in the United States (N = 969). Anal...

Tässä tutkimusraportissa tarkastelemme koronapandemian heijastumista suomalaiseen yhteiskuntaan pandemian ensimmäisen vuoden aikana. Tarkastelun ajanjakso sijoittuu vuoden 2020 huhtikuun ja marraskuun välille ja kohteena ovat suomenkielisen aikuisväestön kokemukset. Tutkimme suomalaisten näkemyksiä pandemiaan liittyvistä syistä ja seurauksista, mie...

Based on lifestyle exposure theory (LET), this study examined online dating application (ODA) use and victimization experiences among adolescents using large cross-national samples of Finnish, American, Spanish, and South Korean young people between ages 15 and 18. According to logistic regression analyses in two substudies, ODA use was associated...

On March 11, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. As the virus spread, governments called on citizens to comply with handwashing and social distancing behaviors. We use survey data from Finland and the United States to examine whether collaborative dimensions help predict compliance with health protective behaviors related to combatting COVID-19. We a...

Problem gambling among young people is an emerging trend globally. The online environment in particular offers various possibilities for gambling engagement. This is the first cross-national survey study using the social ecological model to analyze problem gambling, especially in the online context. The study aimed to analyze how different social e...

Problem gambling among young people is an emerging trend globally. The online environment in particular offers various possibilities for gambling engagement. This is the first cross-national survey study using the social ecological model to analyze problem gambling, especially in the online context. The aim was to analyze how different social ecolo...

This article aims to map the information-seeking habits of population groups in a digital economy. The growing use of technologies in the modern online era has increased the availability of information regarding services and items through user-generated content and applications. However, the potential for leverage through ICTs may not be evenly dis...

Robotization and artificial intelligence (AI) are expected to change societies profoundly. Trust is an important factor of human–technology interactions, as robots and AI increasingly contribute to tasks previously handled by humans. Currently, there is a need for studies investigating trust toward AI and robots, especially in first-encounter meeti...

The objective of this study was to examine if belonging to online communities and social media identity bubbles predict youth problem gambling. An online survey was administered to 15–25-year-old participants in the United States (N = 1212), South Korea (N = 1192), Spain (N = 1212), and Finland (N = 1200). The survey measured two dimensions of onli...

In this paper, we study the influence of the social class and political party preference on support for fossil fuel taxation in Nordic countries. Additionally, we examine how age confounds the relationship between party preference and support for fossil fuel taxation. We utilize Round 8 data from the European Social Survey from Finland, Norway, and...

This article examines the changing patterns of Finnish social media use during the years 2008–2016. This is the first temporal look at changes in Finnish social media use with representative population-level data. We assess how social media use has evolved between socio-economic and demographic groups in advanced information societies, with a focus...

The article examines the recent trends in online gambling in Finland from 2006 to 2016. The data are derived from the “Use of Information and Communication Technology Statistics by Individuals and Household Survey” collected by Statistics Finland (N = 29,214). The analysis focuses on the frequencies of online gambling and the amounts of money spent...

In this paper, we focus on social media users and examine the factors predicting users’ confidence in platforms in case of private messaging. For the social media platforms, social ties and information that flows through the contacts are valuable assets, which must be considered in the development of the services (such as messaging applications) in...

This study examines norms concerning appearance-related commenting on social media. More specifically, the focus of this study is on the approvability of positively commenting on other people’s physical appearance, commenting on other people’s dressing style and commenting on the appearance of public figures. We examined how these norms are predict...

This paper examines ethical consumption by comparing attitudes between different political party supporters. In recent consumer theories, it is argued that individualistic choices are more important than collective and structural interests. However, shared opinions, norms, and beliefs continue to influence consumer attitudes. This is particularly t...

Physical appearance as a form of capital has received increasing attention in sociology in recent years. The logic suggests that ‘aesthetic capital’, like other forms of capital, can be accumulated and utilised in economic and social exchange. However, previous research has not paid attention to societal norms that may regulate the accumulation and...

Societal threats are a growing concern in European democracies in light of risks of terrorism. At the same time, we are witnessing a visible trend of political polarization across the countries. Therefore, there is a need to understand how risk perceptions have changed over time ideologically and demographically. This article provides a novel look...

Background: The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has dramatically changed societies in 2020. Since the end of February, Europe has been hit particularly hard by COVID-19, but there are major country differences in both the spread of the virus and measures taken to stop the virus. Social psychological factors such as institutional tru...

BACKGROUND The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has dramatically changed societies in 2020. Since the end of February, Europe has been hit particularly hard by COVID-19, but there are major country differences in both the spread of the virus and measures taken to stop the virus. Social psychological factors such as institutional trust...

This study identifies social media users who aim to influence others and those who have experienced influencing behavior targeted at them. It investigates how influential users and targets of influence differ with respect to their demographic backgrounds and how the perceived group identification, network homogeneity, and size of the social network...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the association between political party preference and trust in knowledge-based institutions, while also considering how political trust facilitates the association. The authors focus on the opinions of supporters of the six largest parliamentary political parties in Finland. Design/methodology/appro...

Artikkelissa tarkastelemme sosiaalidemokraattien ja vihreiden puoluekokousedustajien edustavuutta suhteessa puolueiden jäseniin ja kannattajiin. Kokousedustajat ovat olennaisia toimijoita, jotka luovat pidemmän linjan poliittisia tavoitteita ja strategioita toimien samalla merkittävinä päätöksentekijöinä puolueissa. Artikkelin ydin muodostuu kahden...

Social media provides new platforms for political participation and ideological categorization. However, little research has been done on how party preference is related to politically active social media use. We begin with a consideration of how political participation on social media has evolved between various socio-economic and demographic grou...

Increasing social media use has transformed political participation by creating social cliques and echo chambers, which involve interaction between like‐minded people. This article examines the relationship between online political activity and personal involvement in online identity bubbles. This study is the first to examine this phenomenon using...

This paper examines whether web-based survey responses differ from traditional mail-based questionnaire responses when examining attitudes towards sensitive issues in a mixed-mode survey. Our motivation for the study comes from social desirability bias, which is a generally discussed theme in social surveys. The data are derived from the Finnish se...

This study provides a new frame of reference for understanding intraparty dynamics by analyzing party members' representativeness with respect to party supporters regarding socioeconomic status and ideological spectrum in a multiparty system, namely that of Finland. The analysis is based on a unique member-based survey of Finland's six major politi...

Traditionally, Finnish politics have been governed by three major parties, Social Democratic Party of Finland, Centre Party, and National Coalition Party, two of which have formed the government with the help of smaller parties. However, this situation changed as the 2010s came when the Finns Party first became third most popular party in the 2011...

While Twitter has become an essential part of daily politics across Western countries, little research has focused on origins of politicians’ social circles on social media. This paper contributes to how structural, ideological and contextual factors affect tie formation between parliamentarians’ Twitter networks. The study focuses on Finland, wher...

Internet-related personal communication has increased significantly in the course of recent years. Simultaneously, the possibility of sharing sensitive personal information has become a part of everyday life. Thus, the possibility of privacy violations and leaking of personal data has arisen. This paper analyzes the extent to which Internet users t...

This report examines the "Finland in the Digital Age" (Digitalisoituva Suomi) research data. The data were gathered using two different procedures: a postal survey and an online panel. The postal survey was carried out by the unit of Economic Sociology at the University of Turku in the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018. The online panel data wa...

This study is focused on questions regarding online identifications. We intend to examine the extent to which different demographic groups and generations in Finland identify with online communities in 2009 and 2017. Our empirical data are derived from nationally representative surveys collected in Finland in 2009 (n=1,202) and 2017 (n=1,648). The...

This study investigates social media users' preferences of encountering or actively avoiding undesired content and conflicts in social interaction with others. Based on a nationwide survey (N=3706) conducted in Finland and using principal component analysis, we identify three different types of social media use in relation to online information sha...

Poliitikkojen harkitsematonta puhetta tieteestä ja tieteenharjoittajista havainnollistaa pääministeri Sipilän paljon huomiota saanut tokaisu kaiken maailman dosenteista. Turkulaiset Arttu Saarinen, Aki Koivula ja Teo Keipi päättivät tehdä ensimmäisen suomalaisten puolueiden kannattajien tiedeasenteita koskevan tutkimuksen laajaan vuonna 2017 kerätt...

While traditional political parties have grown up around the social class structure, the formation of new parties is influenced more by values. In Finland the memberships of traditional and large parties have been falling in recent decades, at the same time as newer parliamentary parties have managed to increase their memberships. It has been sugge...

This paper analyzes the extent to which Internet users trust that the privacy of their private messages is protected and upheld in web-based messaging services such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. The paper examines how users' trust for other people (social trust) and trust in institutional actors (such as the parliamentary system and police) p...

Political party members are still a significant group in driving both party values and future changes. In this respect, sources of party representativeness hold significance in assessing the party landscape in a national setting. This study provides a new frame of reference for understanding intra-party dynamics by analyzing party members' represen...

Political party member perceptions of risk continue to attract a great deal of attention in current public discourse and media coverage, yet little research exists in terms of a comparative analysis of Finnish political parties’ views on the issue. Party members are in many ways a highly significant social group, one that exercises a great deal of...

This study examines the social Internet use-purposes of Finns along with links to perceived life satisfaction. Here, associations between life satisfaction and various online behaviors linked to socialization are explored among the Finnish adult population, sigh data coming from nationally representative surveys focused on adult populations in Finl...

The socio-demographic profiles and occupations of the members of the Green League and other Finnish political parties are examined using survey data collected from the members of Finland's six major political parties (n = 12,427). Significant differentiation in occupational structure is revealed among Green party members. The importance of understa...

Political division has become an increasingly common and noticeable practice after the proliferation of social media, which affords a favorable platform for ideological categorizations and political conflicts. However, little research has focused on political party supporters’ use and perceptions of social media. We begin with a consideration of ho...

This article examines how the level of social trust varies between different party supporters in four Nordic countries. We aim to offer new interpretations concerning the associations between party preference and social trust by examining social activity, social status and institutional confidence of political party supporters. Our data are derived...

This publication examines “The everyday life and participation” mail survey data. The data were collected at the beginning of the year 2017 at the Unit of Economic Sociology, The University of Turku, as a part of the ”Political Bubbles” research project funded by the Foundation for Municipal Development and the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation. Questio...

Artikkelissa tarkastellaan kuuden suurimman eduskuntapuolueen jäsenten sosiaalisia rakenteita laajan kyselytutkimusaineiston perusteella. Lähtökohtana on, että eri puolueiden jäsenten ja kannattajien sosiaalinen rakenne on yhteydessä myös puolueiden poliittisiin tavoitteisiin. Kirjoittajat keskustelevat myös siitä, kuinka puolueiden jäsenistö vasta...

This article examines the association between Finn's political orientation and preferences regarding hedonistic and mundane consumer activities. Data derived from national-level surveys collected in Finland in 2009 (n=1,202) and 2014 (n=1,351) suggests that political party identification is an important predictor of perceived consumption, even afte...

Mitä eri ihmisryhmiä puolueiden jäsenet edustavat, ja minkälaisissa verkostoissa he toimivat? Miten jäsenten siteet kanssaihmisiin ovat vaikuttaneet heidän poliittiseen kantaansa? Ovatko puolueet sittenkään samankaltaisia keskenään, vai eroavatko ne toisistaan? Tässä tutkimuksessa on selvitetty kuuden suurimman eduskuntapuolueen jäsenrakenteita ja...

Tässä tutkimuksessa arvioimme vihreiden suhdetta muihin puolueisiin analysoimalla jäsenten ja kannattajien sosiodemografisia profiileja, yhteiskunnallista asemaa, sosiaalisen median verkostoja sekä heidän subjektiivisia arvioitaan muista puolueista. Tarkastelemalla sekä sosiodemografisia profiileja että jäsenten arvioita suhteessa muihin puolueisii...

Nykypäivänä voidaan jo perustellusti väittää, että verkosta on muodostunut yksi keskeisimmistä tavaroiden ja palveluiden jakelu-tai hankintakanavista. Siitä huoli-matta verkko-ostamisesta ei juurikaan ole tehty väestötasolla edustavia analyysejä. Aikaisempi naisten ja miesten verkko-ostamista käsittelevä tutkimus on sijoittunut pitkälti markkinoinn...

The internet has made it possible for consumers to engage in gambling without traditional restrictions. Individuals can choose from a wide range of gambling options online and log on regardless of time or place. It has been suggested that the activity of online gambling cannot be examined using the same criteria as conventional gambling. Convention...