What makes people share posts on social media?

The researchers found that essentially that information on the internet can go viral because people find it inherently valuable, either to themselves or to society.

“People pay more attention to the information they perceive to be related to themselves. Similarly, humans are social beings and love to connect with each other. Sharing information activates reward centres in our brains. And when we communicate with others, we consider what the other person is thinking or wants to hear — a quality known as social relevance,” said the study.

Danielle Cosme, one of the researchers of the study, explained that the findings were key to crafting effective messaging for social causes.

“Knowing the psychological ingredients that make a person share a post on social media can help scientists share facts about climate change or public health officials dispel myths about vaccines,” said Cosme.

The study

The researcher at the University of Pennsylvania analysed the behaviour of more than 3,000 individuals to explore the psychology behind sharing information online.

Participants were exposed to articles and social media posts about health, climate change, voting, and Covid-19.

Some participants read headlines and summaries of news articles, others looked at social-media posts. All of the participants rated how likely they were to share each message and how relevant they found each one to themselves and to people they know.

The researchers found that no matter the topic covered or the medium of the message, people were most likely to say they would share messages that they perceived as relevant or to themselves.

“Sharing information is a critical component of individual and collective action. At the beginning of the pandemic, we needed to quickly spread accurate information about what was going on, how to protect ourselves, and how to protect each other,” Cosme said.

“Information spreading within social networks can be really impactful for changing our individual behaviour, and also changing our collective behaviour through shifting our perceptions of what’s normative,” she added.