Twitter Use and its Impact on Public Attitudes Toward Bank Robberies in Jordan

Abstract

This study examines the influence of Twitter as a social media network on public punitive attitudes toward bank robbers in Jordan. After fifteen bank robberies were committed in Jordan over two weeks in 2018, social networks were flooded with comments from Jordanians expressing their attitudes and opinions about the incidents. Individuals’ tweets from January to August 2018 were analyzed in order to reveal people’s attitudes toward the crimes, examine specific social and cultural factors that might influence people’s attitudes toward crime, and discover why Jordanian Twitter users hold the views they do. The findings suggest that most of the commentaries were of a sarcastic nature and often included criticism of the government. These attitudes can be attributed to poor living conditions in Jordan and failed economic policies by the government. Social cognitive theory was adopted in order to provide further insights into how social media affects people’s attitudes and behavior. The paper concludes by discussing the dangerous effects of spreading negative comments via social media networks.