SHARING ARTICLES ON SOCIAL MEDIA MAKES US THINK WE’RE NOW EXPERTS

Thu 01 September 2022:

Sharing articles on Facebook or Twitter, even if we haven’t read them, might encourage us to assume we are experts on a certain area, which can be dangerous, according to new research.

According to a new study by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin in the United States, sharing news stories with friends and followers on social media can lead people to believe they know more about the topics of the articles than they really do.

“When people feel they’re more knowledgeable, they’re more likely to make riskier decisions,” said assistant professor Adrian Ward.

The study, published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, said that social media sharers believe that they are knowledgeable about the content they share, even if they have not read it or have only glanced at a headline.

“Sharing can create this rise in confidence because by putting information online, sharers publicly commit to an expert identity. Doing so shapes their sense of self, helping them to feel just as knowledgeable as their post makes them seem,” the findings showed.

To reach this conslusion, Susan M Broniarczyk and Ward Broniarczyk conducted several studies.

They found that people internalise their sharing into the self-concept, which leads them to believe they are as knowledgeable as their posts make them appear.

“Participants thought they knew more when their sharing publicly committed them to an expert identity: when sharing under their own identity versus an alias, when sharing with friends versus strangers, and when they had free choice in choosing what to share,” said the study.

The research suggests there’s merit to social media companies that have piloted ways to encourage people to read articles before sharing.

“If people feel more knowledgeable on a topic, they also feel they maybe don’t need to read or learn additional information on that topic,” Broniarczyk said. “This miscalibrated sense of knowledge can be hard to correct.”

The research is online in advance in the Journal of Consumer Psychology. The findings are relevant in a world in which it’s simple to share content online without reading it. Recent data from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism show only 51% of consumers who “read” an online news story actually read the whole article, while 26% read part, and 22% looked at just the headline or a few lines.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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