Hostile Social Media Effect: Influences of Partisanship, Social Endorsement, and Outrage on Willingness to Engage in Online Discursive Activities

• In Event: Social Media, Discussion, Deliberation, and Public Opinion

Abstract

An online experiment (N=210) examined the role of partisanship and social endorsement cues (e.g., Retweets in Twitter) in instigating perceptions of hostile biases in social media contents about a contentious issue (campus carry). Our study results indicate that higher levels of social endorsement in Twitter messages affect partisans’ perceptions of hostile biases in the social media environment. The perceived hostile bias elicited outrage among participants, which in turn influenced people’s willingness to engage in online discursive activities such as voicing their opinions and starting conversations with others. The mediating role of outrage suggests that cognitive involvement alone in the hostile media perception may not be sufficient to elicit behavioral changes.

Authors

• Soojin Roh, Syracuse University

• Tamara Makana Chock, Syracuse U