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hubie [soylentnews.org] writes:

Sharing on Social Media Makes Us Overconfident in Our Knowledge [utexas.edu]:

Sharing news articles with friends and followers on social media can prompt people to think they know more about the articles' topics than they actually do, according to a new study from researchers at The University of Texas at Austin.

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.

This is especially true when sharing with close friends, according to a new paper from Susan M. Broniarczyk [utexas.edu], professor of marketing, and Adrian Ward [utexas.edu], assistant professor of marketing, at UT's McCombs School of Business.

[...] The research also 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."

For more details about this research, read the McCombs Big Ideas feature story [medium.com] and watch the video [youtube.com] explaining Broniarczyk and Ward's work.

Journal Reference:
Adrian F. Ward, Jianqing (Frank) Zheng, Susan M. Broniarczyk, I share, therefore I know? Sharing online content - even without reading it - inflates subjective knowledge, J Con Psych, 2022. DOI: 10.1002/jcpy.1321 [doi.org]

Original Submission