Do You Share Because You Care?

This post was written by Sarah Rezaei, senior research assistant at the Department of Psychology, Monk Prayogshala.

The trajectory of internet-based activities changed enormously with the advent of social media technology, prompting passive users to take on more influential roles. Traditional sources of media, like television and newspapers, provided a unidirectional medium of information consumption. However, with today’s changing media landscape, our relationship with content and information has also changed—consumers are now playing the role of distributors, creators, and curators. Users engage with the material they encounter more actively than ever before. It seems as though social media today has the world in a chokehold with a reach and influence that is undeniable, lending itself as a stage that enables its users to find a powerful voice in society.

Traditional sources of media, like television and newspapers, provided a unidirectional medium of information consumption.

Source: Filip Mishevski/Unsplash

Online news-sharing has become a common practice and a rather important process through which we engage with news. As the popular Spiderman series adage goes, “With great power comes great responsibility”; the influential capacity that users hold today with a social media account is often underplayed. Hence, sharing content responsibly becomes imperative. The online information environment is largely influenced by what news gets shared; which, albeit covertly, has significant implications for people’s behaviour.

Although sharing information gives people confidence, by making them feel as though they are more informed and knowledgeable (even if all they have read is the headline), the dangers that come with such freedom of producing and sharing information include the possibility of suppressing contrarian views and distorting reality, among others.

Cross-cultural differences in news-sharing behaviour

A considerable number of studies exploring the rationale behind people’s sharing behaviour have employed the "Uses and Gratification" theory to understand people’s motivations for social media use and the kind of information they decide to share. The theory focuses on how media is used to satisfy affective and cognitive needs, which can include personal and/or entertainment needs.

One such study, conducted on a sample of Nigerian social media users, found "altruism" to be an influential factor in motivating people to share information on social media platforms. However, the desire to help another through the sharing of information could entail the proliferation of misinformation if the source is not vetted and verified. The researchers note that "altruism" could be understood as a cultural trait, one that is entrenched in an average Nigerian upbringing, which could explain the findings.

Similarly, a 2018 Statista statistic on the factors that motivate Indians to share information on social media showed that 48.5 percent of Indians share news because "it may benefit others." A study on a Pakistani sample, investigating the proliferation of fake news regarding COVID-19, also found altruistic motivations to be a predictor of fake news sharing. Individuals are likely to unwittingly share “fake” news on the internet with the aim of informing others if they do not verify the source and content of the information.

The sharing of information could entail the proliferation of misinformation if the source is not vetted and verified.

Source: Obi - @pixel6propix/Unsplash

The dissemination of “fake” news is becoming increasingly worrisome given the popularity of social media and the ease with which interactions and the exchange of ideas take place on various platforms. Although the sharing of information can be seen as a social good, if the news shared is false, perhaps because the sharer did not know or suspect it to be false, it can negatively impact behaviour and relationships.

We see a rather disparate approach to seeking and sharing health information in Southeast Asia. Research participants in China were found to be less willing to seek or share health-related information on social media platforms and were more sensitive to the psychological risks that come with sharing such information on the internet. The spread of false news can be more detrimental in times of uncertainty, like that of the COVID-19 pandemic, where false health-related information had far-reaching consequences on people’s behaviours, and on physical and mental health.

Incentives for information sharing?

Although there may be a variety of reasons that prompt people to share information on the internet, a common analogy used to describe social media platforms is to compare it to a Skinner box. Here, a form of reward reinforcement learning occurs when individuals share content on the internet. Studies have shown how social motives play a role in information sharing, specifically, positive social feedback in form of "likes," comments, or more followers.

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The gratification that users get when someone "double taps" an image they share or "likes" their tweet acts as an incentive.

Source: Prateek Katyal/Unsplash

The gratification that users get when someone "double taps" an image they share or "likes" their tweet acts as an incentive to share more of that content. It is argued that when users decide what information to share, they take into account both the utility they will derive from the accuracy of the information they will share, and also the social connections they expect to build from it. Additionally, it is seen that among other reasons, personal gain is one of the significant factors that influence one’s active participation on social networking sites. Personal gain could include any kind of tangible benefits (e.g., monetary incentives) that the users expect to gain through their sharing of information.

To investigate if information-sharing can be influenced, the Department of Psychology at Monk Prayogshala, in collaboration with Tattle Civic Tech, is aiming to assess if and how web monetization technologies can incentivize people to share accurate information in India (pre-registered on the Open Science Framework). The idea is that individuals can be nudged to share “good” content by incentivizing them (either through social feedback or micropayments) each time they share factual information and disincentivizing them when they don’t.

Understanding the enormous potential of the influence that users generate with the information they choose to share is important to further the agenda of encouraging people to be critical of the information they encounter and share. Further investigations into how this can be achieved are needed.