디지털 윤리의식이 비윤리행동 감소에 미치는 영향: 메타인지의 매개효과와 자기결정성 동기 및 디지털역량의 조절효과

초록

This study examines factors that can reduce unethical behavior in everyday digital life marked by increasing unethical practices, with a particular focus on enhancing the practical impact of digital ethical awareness. Specifically, it explores the potential of cognitive, motivational, and competence related factors by investigating their integrated relationships. To this end, the study (1) examines the effect of digital ethics awareness which encompasses a wide range of “ethical issues” in digital society on unethical behavior, (2) investigates whether metacognition mediates the relationship between digital ethics awareness and the reduction of unethical behavior, and (3) tests whether self-determined motivation and digital competence moderate the relationships among digital ethics awareness, metacognition, and unethical behavior. An online survey was conducted, and data from 1,020 respondents were used in the final analysis. The results are as follows. First, digital ethics awareness was found to significantly reduce unethical behavior. Second, the indirect effect of digital ethics awareness on unethical behavior through metacognition was not statistically significant. In the mediation model, however, the direct effect was larger in magnitude than the total effect. Because the small indirect effect emerged in the opposite direction to the direct effect, a suppressor tendency could be suspected; nevertheless, given that the indirect effect itself was not significant, this pattern requires cautious interpretation. Third, the moderation analysis showed that when self-determination motivation was low and digital competence was high, the effect of digital ethics awareness on reducing unethical behavior was strengthened. In addition, when both self-determination motivation and digital competence were high, the effect of digital ethics awareness on increasing the use of metacognition was amplified. However, self-determination motivation and digital competence did not exhibit significant conditional moderating effects in the relationship between metacognition and unethical behavior. Moreover, in the process through which digital ethics awareness affects unethical behavior via metacognition, self-determination motivation and digital competence did not show significant conditional moderating effects, and thus moderated mediation was not supported. In sum, only partial moderating effects of self-determination motivation and digital competence were identified. These findings indicate that digital ethics awareness, which encompasses multidimensional digital ethical issues, functions as a core predictor that directly reduces unethical behavior. They also suggest the potential intervening roles of motivational factors and performance-related capacities—specifically self-determination motivation and digital competence—in the process by which digital ethics awareness contributes to the reduction of unethical behavior. Based on these results, the study discusses implications for digital ethics education aimed at promoting the behavioral enactment of digital ethics awareness, and it concludes with limitations and suggestions for future research.

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