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People share information for many reasons. For example, Berger (2011, N = 40) found that undergraduate participants manipulated to have higher physiological arousal were more likely to share a news article with others via email than people who had low arousal. Berger's research is widely cited as evidence of the causal role of arousal in sharing information and has been used to explain why information that induces high-arousal emotions is shared more than information that induces low-arousal emotions. We conducted two replications ( N = 111, N = 160) of Berger's study, using the same arousal manipulation but updating the sharing measure to reflect the rise of information sharing through social media. Both studies failed to find an impact of incidental physiological arousal on undergraduate participants' willingness to share news articles on social media. Our studies cast doubt on the idea that incidental physiological arousal-in the absence of other factors-impacts people's decisions to share information on social networking sites.

Background: People living with chronic conditions such as diabetes turn to peers on social media to obtain and share information. Although social media use has grown dramatically in the past decade, little is known about its implications for the relationships between people with chronic conditions and health care professionals (HCPs)., Objective: We aimed to systematically review the content and quality of studies examining what the retrieval and sharing of information by people with chronic conditions on social media implies for their relationships with HCPs., Methods: We conducted a search of studies in MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), and CINAHL (EBSCO). Eligible studies were primary studies; examined social media use; included adults with any type of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases that are closely linked with diabetes, obesity, hypertension, or dyslipidemia; and reported on the implications for people with chronic conditions-HCP relationships when people with chronic conditions access and share information on social media. We used the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool version 2018 to assess the quality of the studies, and the included studies were narratively synthesized., Results: Of the 3111 screened studies, 17 (0.55%) were included. Most studies (13/17, 76%) were of low quality. The narrative synthesis identified implications for people with chronic conditions-HCP relationships when people with chronic conditions access and share information on social media, divided into 3 main categories with 7 subcategories. These categories of implications address how the peer interactions of people with chronic conditions on social media can influence their communication with HCPs, how people with chronic conditions discuss advice and medical information from HCPs on social media, and how relationships with HCPs are discussed by people with chronic conditions on social media. The implications are illustrated collectively in a conceptual model., Conclusions: More evidence is needed to draw conclusions, but the findings indicate that the peer interactions of people with chronic conditions on social media are implicated in the ways in which people with chronic conditions equip themselves for clinical consultations, evaluate the information and advice provided by HCPs, and manage their relationships with HCPs. Future populations with chronic conditions will be raised in a digital world, and social media will likely remain a strategy for obtaining support and information. However, the generally low quality of the studies included in this review points to the relatively immature state of research exploring social media and its implications for people with chronic conditions-HCP relationships. Better study designs and methods for conducting research on social media are needed to generate robust evidence., (©Emilie Mølholm Kjærulff, Tue Helms Andersen, Natasja Kingod, Mette Andersen Nexø. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 17.04.2023.)

Media-saturated digital environments seek to influence social media users' behaviour, including through marketing. The World Health Organization has identified food marketing, including advertising for unhealthy items, as detrimental to health, and in many countries, regulation restricts such marketing and advertising to younger children. Yet regulation rarely addresses adolescents and few studies have examined their responses to social media advertising. In two studies, we examined adolescents' attention, memory and social responses to advertising posts, including interactions between product types and source of posts. We hypothesized adolescents would respond more positively to unhealthy food advertising compared to healthy food or non-food advertising, and more positively to ads shared by peers or celebrities than to ads shared by a brand. Outcomes measured were (1a) social responses (likelihood to 'share', attitude to peer); (1b) brand memory (recall, recognition) and (2) attention (eye-tracking fixation duration and count). Participants were 151 adolescent social media users (Study 1: n = 72; 13-14 years; M = 13.56 years, SD = 0.5; Study 2: n = 79, 13-17 years, M = 15.37 years, SD = 1.351). They viewed 36 fictitious Facebook profile feeds created to show age-typical content. In a 3 × 3 factorial design, each contained an advertising post that varied by content (healthy/unhealthy/non-food) and source (peer/celebrity/company). Generalised linear mixed models showed that advertisements for unhealthy food evoked significantly more positive responses, compared to non-food and healthy food, on 5 of 6 measures: adolescents were more likely to wish to 'share' unhealthy posts; rated peers more positively when they had unhealthy posts in their feeds; recalled and recognised a greater number of unhealthy food brands; and viewed unhealthy advertising posts for longer. Interactions with sources (peers, celebrities and companies) were more complex but also favoured unhealthy food advertising. Implications are that regulation of unhealthy food advertising should address adolescents and digital media., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Purpose: To explore caregivers' writings about their experiences caring for adult individuals with cancer on a social media health communication website., Participants & Setting: Journal entries (N = 392) were analyzed for 37 adult caregivers who were posting on behalf of 20 individuals with cancer. CaringBridge is a website used by patients and informal caregivers to communicate about acute and chronic disease., Methodologic Approach: A retrospective descriptive study using qualitative content analysis of caregivers' journal entries from 2009 to 2015., Findings: Major categories identified in caregivers' online journals included patient health information, cancer awareness/advocacy, social support, caregiver burden, daily living, emotions (positive and negative), and spirituality., Implications for Nursing: Nurses often recommend using social media as a communication strategy for patients with cancer and their caregivers. The findings from this study provide potential guidance nurses may wish to offer caregivers. For example, nurses may talk with caregivers about how and what to post regarding treatment decisions. In addition, nurses can provide support for caregivers struggling with when and how often to communicate on social media.

This study aimed to examine the motives, topics and antecedents for sharing health information online among Korean Internet users. Eight hundred adults completed a web-based survey exploring the motives; topics; physical, cognitive, affective and environmental factors; and experiences relating to sharing health information online. The motives for not sharing information included information absence and inappropriateness. The most preferred topic was disease. Good subjective health was significantly associated with frequent information sharing while individuals with a history of disease involving themselves or family members were more likely to share health information than were those without such a history. Further, a higher level of depressed mood was related to a higher level of sharing. Internet-related self-efficacy and trust in information delivery channels were positively related to sharing. Future research could extend the factors related to information sharing to include the evaluation of shared information., (© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

The concept of sharing has undergone significant transformations with the advent of digital technologies and social media. From online forums to social media platforms, the practice of sharing has become increasingly nuanced and multifaceted, which underscores the complexity of online communication. This editorial provides a broad overview of the complexities and dynamics of sharing practices on social media, drawing on insights from relevant literature and the field of pragmatics, and discusses the potential factors that may influence individuals' sharing practices and pragmatic strategies. Finally, it summarizes the key contributions of each article, highlighting its theoretical and empirical significance. • Sharing practices on social media are complex and multifaceted. • Sharing shapes information dissemination, identity construction, and social cohesion. • Socio-cultural, technological, and individual motivations influence sharing behaviors. • The studies in this special issue contribute to understanding the pragmatics of sharing in contemporary digital cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political memes represent an important medium through which people engage with politics. Using content analysis of 3,879 memes from partisan Facebook Pages with significant reach across the 2016–2022 U.S. national election cycles, we analyze political meme composition and amplification. Memes were consistent with the actors, issues, and strategies mentioned across elections. Results indicate that stably owned or newly emergent issues received more shares on Facebook as did uncivil memes. The findings are normatively troubling, as the political memes likely to be amplified are those featuring new issues, stably owned partisan issues, and elements of uncivil discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High levels of self-disclosure on different Social Media platforms are part of our everyday lives nowadays. Users tend to share detailed information about their personal lives willingly while often underestimating its negative consequences. Previous studies emphasize the complexity of the processes of online self-disclosure. Our aim with this current research is to examine how online self-disclosure is influenced by different psychological factors: the attitude towards the value of the users' own data, perceived control over personal information and perceived risks associated with sharing on Social Media, with a multimethod study. In Study 1, a qualitative approach was introduced (N = 37), in Study 2, we conducted an online survey on a representative sample (N = 1597). In Study 1, we found that participants often underestimate the value of their own personal data and its usability by others. This (incorrect) interpretation gives them an increased sense of confidence about the security of their personal data in online contexts and facilitates them to share personal information on Social Media. In line with this, in Study 2 we found that the more the participants engage in self-disclosure on Social Media, the less risky they perceive their online activity. This suggests, the importance of sharing may overwrite the risks of sharing. Our results also show that higher engagement in online self-disclosure comes with a higher sense of control, which in turn decreases risk perception on Social Media sites. In sum, processes of self-disclosure on Social Media are influenced by not just the users' sense of control and risk perception but their perceptions towards the value of their own personal data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the continued drive for sharing the self online, social media users have been increasingly orienting to practices of 'not sharing' in the context of wider debates about digital wellbeing. In this article, we investigate how celebrities manage and navigate online sharing. We focus on media ideologies in social media posts that announce the celebrities' decision to 'take a break', i.e. to stop posting and/or engaging with social media content. Our analysis of these announcements as rich examples of metapragmatic awareness points to three main discourses that justify celebrities' decision to take a break: (a) mental health and wellbeing, (b) public-private boundaries, and (c) social justice and protest. These justifications of 'not sharing' are associated with metapragmatic typifications of celebrities who position themselves as vulnerable , but also as agentive , professional and role models for their fans. The article offers empirical insights into how power players of the social mediascape, such as celebrities, understand and orient to meanings and practices of digital sharing. In terms of practical implications, the study of celebrities' metapragmatic discourse reveals how fans, as ordinary users, are presented with opportunities and models of managing social media activity, owning mental health issues and acting on them. • Posts about taking a break from social media reveal users' metapragmatic discourse. • Not-sharing discourse points to changes in practices, attitudes and ideologies of sharing. • Media ideologies of (not) sharing focus on issues of users' privacy and wellbeing. • Celebrities (re)position themselves as mature, agentive and caring sharers. • Celebrities present their fans with models of digital sharing and owning mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Social media has transformed how music therapists work, with numerous practitioners utilizing the affordances of social media in music therapy practice. So far, music therapy research has been significantly limited regarding the ethical implications of social media use. A better understanding of the ethics of social media use is needed to inform the continuous evaluation of professional ethical guidelines. Methods: We conducted a systematic text condensation of transcripts from one conversational focus group consisting of five participants with diverse connections to music therapy and social media. Results: The results highlight the many ways social media can facilitate both substantial value as well as serious risk in music therapy practice. Through the analysis, it has also become clear that music therapists must make complex considerations in working with social media to maintain a level of responsible practice. Discussion: This study provides (a) insights and experiences from practice gathered in a conversational focus group, (b) discussions exploring the possible value and risks of social media use in music therapy, and (c) implications for practice including a summary of some ethical reflections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While fact-checking has received much attention as an important tool to address the prevalence of misinformation, how to ensure fact-checking messages spread as far and wide as misinformation remains to be studied. To fill this gap, this study examined when people decide to share fact-checking messages on social media and what psychological mechanisms underlie such a decision. Two experiments revealed that fact-checking messages debunking a viral misinformation post (i.e. liked, shared, and commented on many times) were perceived to be more socially desirable as compared to fact-checking messages discrediting a non-viral misinformation post. Individuals presumed greater influence of the socially desirable fact-checking messages on themselves than others (i.e. greater first-person perception). Enhanced first-person perception, in turn, led to stronger intentions to share the fact-checking messages on social media. Theoretical and practical implications for fact-checking efforts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Social media data may augment understanding of the disease and treatment experiences and quality of life of youth with chronic medical conditions. Little is known about the willingness to share social media data for health research among youth with chronic medical conditions and the differences in health status between sharing and nonsharing youth with chronic medical conditions. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate the associations between patient-reported measures of disease symptoms and functioning and the willingness to share social media data. METHODS: Between February 2018 and August 2019, during routine clinic visits, survey data about social media use and the willingness to share social media data (dependent variable) were collected from adolescents in a national rheumatic disease registry. Survey data were analyzed with patient-reported measures of disease symptoms and functioning and a clinical measure of disease activity, which were collected through a parent study. We used descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression to compare patient-reported outcomes between youth with chronic medical conditions who opted to share social media data and those who did not opt to share such data. RESULTS: Among 112 youths, (age: mean 16.1, SD 1.6 y; female: n=72, 64.3%), 83 (74.1%) agreed to share social media data. Female participants were more likely to share (P=.04). In all, 49 (43.8%) and 28 (25%) participants viewed and posted about rheumatic disease, respectively. Compared to nonsharers, sharers reported lower mobility (T-score: mean 49.0, SD 9.4 vs mean 53.9, SD 8.9; P=.02) and more pain interference (T-score: mean 45.7, SD 8.8 vs mean 40.4, SD 8.0; P=.005), fatigue (T-score: mean 49.1, SD 11.0 vs mean 39.7, SD 9.7; P

Shared coupons, a new form of coupon, differ from coupons distributed directly from businesses (i.e., direct coupons) in that shared coupons combine two influential components: economic savings (e.g., $5 off) and social sharing (e.g., from friends). Using two lab experiments and two large-scale field experiments on social media, the authors find that regular shared coupons underperform direct coupons in terms of coupon redemption because of the norm conflict between economic incentives and communal relationships (i.e., friendships), whereas shared coupons with experience cocreation, in which coupon givers and coupon receivers must invest joint efforts to create a shared experience before redeeming the coupons, outperform direct coupons. Experience cocreation can advance social goals (e.g., building friendships), reduce the norm conflict, and thereby make customers more likely to share and to redeem coupons. The authors further investigate the effects of two strategies for driving the redemption of shared coupons with experience cocreation: changing the coupon's face value (low vs. high) and using ex post communication (social messages vs. economic messages). They find that social messages can make low-value coupons as effective as high-value coupons, thereby enabling the firm to "do more with less." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

News is ever more accessible and consumed via social media, and on those platforms, its distribution is influenced by intermediaries. Because people are exposed to news via online influencers, it is important to know if and how they can impact audience attitudes. This study addresses the effects of politicians’ news sharing on social media users’ attitudes toward the news. Based on a survey experiment with Belgian citizens (N = 1,278), findings indicate that respondents rate news as less credible when it is shared by a politician from a party they would not vote for. This effect is consistent across different types of news outlets. There is no consistent interaction effect with respondents’ levels of media trust. Exploratory analyses highlight that respondents are more likely to select news that is shared by politicians from their preferred party. Thus, politicians’ news sharing not only affects attitudes toward the news but also news consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selfies provide unique opportunities to explore, document, and interact with the self through photography. However, the inherent intrapersonal affordance of self-portraiture becomes a unique manifestation of masspersonal theory when selfies are shared, a step that is often assumed but not unpacked in selfie research. Therefore, it is essential to understand when and for whom these intrapersonal and interpersonal moments evolve into masspersonal moments or communication episodes. This study uses a novel strategy to investigate selfie behavior–the likelihood of taking and sharing selfies–to assess individual differences between selfie-takers, or "selfiers". Discerning selfiers–people more likely to take than share selfies–report greater control and self-esteem compared to non-discerning selfiers, who are equally as likely to take as share selfies. Furthermore, control mediates the effect of selfier type on self-esteem; discerning selfiers report that others are not in control of their life, resulting in greater security regarding others' perceptions of them. The current findings reveal the unique effects of differential deployment of selfies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sharing is a central activity on social media platforms and a key component in crafting one's self-presentation online. In the context of news, user-driven sharing is seen as vital to the success of digital journalism. While research has examined why people choose to share news online, much less is known about non-sharing—that is, why people may be reluctant to share, and what that determination suggests about the nature of news and self-presentation. We examine qualitative interview responses from a cross-section of US news consumers to investigate this question. We find that non-sharers tend to believe that news is "toxic" and potentially damaging to their reputations as well as their relationships. Not sharing news is a protective mechanism for identity maintenance, even as it brings worries about one's voice being silenced in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how individual and situational factors within the social media environment influence different types of news sharing, namely, informative, relational, and expressive sharing. Methodologically, this study uses survey data collected from a representative sample of South Korean media users by Nielsen Company Korea. We found the differential role individual and situational factors play in different types of social media news sharing. Our results offer a clearer portrait of how and why people share news via social media where the characteristics of both news stories and audiences are just one piece of the puzzle that determines news sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many assume that if citizens were more inclined to moralize the values of evidence-based and logical thinking, they would be less likely to share politically hostile, conspiratorial, and false claims on social media. In contrast, on the basis of theories of status seeking and persuasion, we argue that moralization of rationality may actually stimulate the spread of hostile partisan news online, including fabricated claims. Across three large surveys (N = 4800) run on U.S. respondents (one exploratory and two pre-registered), we provide empirical evidence for this prediction and demonstrate that the moralization of rationality can be a form of moral grandstanding by status seekers inclined to spread hostile (mis)information to reach partisan goals. In contrast to such grandstanding with respect to rationality, our studies find robust evidence that intellectual humility – that is, the awareness that intuitions are fallible and that trusting others is often desirable – may protect people from both sharing and believing hostile and false political news online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People seem willing to censor disagreeable political and moral ideas. Five studies explore why people engage in political censorship and test a potential route to decreasing censorship. While Americans report being generally supportive of free speech and against censorship (Study 1), we find that people censor material that seems harmful and false (Study 2), which are often ideas from political opponents (Study 3). Building on work demonstrating the perceived truth of harmful experiences (i.e., experiences of victimization), we test an experience‐sharing intervention to reduce censorship. Among college students, the intervention indirectly decreased students' willingness to censor controversial campus speakers' ideas, through reducing beliefs that these speakers were sharing harmful and false ideas related to gun policy (Study 4). We also find benefits of sharing harmful experiences related to the abortion debate. Americans were less willing to censor and report the social media posts of opponents who base their views on experiences of victimization rather than scientific findings (Study 5). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

False political information–misinformation or disinformation—is widely spread on social media. Individual social media users play a large part in this. However, only a minority actively share false material. It is important to establish what sets these individuals apart from those who do not, and why they do it. Motivations for sharing may vary and are likely to differ between people who share false material unknowingly and on purpose. In this paper we consider the extent to which individual differences in personality and other variables, and motivations for sharing, are associated with the likelihood of people sharing false political information both accidentally and deliberately. In a series of four studies (Ns = 614, 563, 627, 113) we examined predictors of sharing false political information using different methodological approaches. Across the four studies, a key finding was that positive schizotypy is associated with measures of sharing false information both accidentally and deliberately. Motivations for sharing political information online were also relevant, with sharing for reasons of 'raising awareness' appearing particularly important. Implications for research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of misinformation on social media platforms has given rise to growing demands for effective intervention strategies that increase sharing discernment (i.e. increase the difference in the probability of sharing true posts relative to the probability of sharing false posts). One suggested method is to encourage users to deliberate on the veracity of the information prior to sharing. However, this strategy is undermined by individuals' propensity to share posts they acknowledge as false. In our study, across three experiments, in a simulated social media environment, participants were shown social media posts and asked whether they wished to share them and, sometimes, whether they believed the posts to be truthful. We observe that requiring users to verify their belief in a news post's truthfulness before sharing it markedly curtails the dissemination of false information. Thus, requiring self-certification increased sharing discernment. Importantly, requiring self-certification didn't hinder users from sharing content they genuinely believed to be true because participants were allowed to share any posts that they indicated were true. We propose self-certification as a method that substantially curbs the spread of misleading content on social media without infringing upon the principle of free speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sharing is a key function of social media (Yus, 2022). This study aims to analyse the sharing practices of five Spanish WhatsApp groups from a pragmatic, ethnographic and qualitative perspective. The groups consist of family members, friends and three groups formed by work colleagues. Specifically, this study aims to respond three research questions: What do group members share? To what extent is the act of sharing explicitly and meta-pragmatically talked about and responded to? And to what extent do recipients respond to sharing also in a meta-pragmatically explicit way? Results show that both family and friends follow similar patterns, where interactants share good news and entertainment to boost rapport. Interestingly, this pattern is replicated by working groups, whose ultimate aim is rather different. This reveals that, independently of why the WhatsApp group was created, participants prefer boosting rapport by means of mutual enjoyment (Yus, 2023) rather than using these groups exclusively for their instrumental purpose, possibly because of Spanish culture's orientation to positive politeness (Iglesias Recuero, 2017). However, the meta-pragmatics of both types of groups seems to differ, with more explicit references performed in the working groups, probably due to the need to explicitly acknowledge that sharing might not be the groups' originally intended aim. • We study the pragmatics of sharing by five WhatsApp groups of Peninsular Spanish users ethnographically. • We examine the elements shared depending on the sociological variable of distance (work, family and friends). • More distant groups use meta-pragmatic comments to mitigate imposition. • Family and friends refrain from using meta-pragmatic comments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political campaigning is increasingly undertaken by means of social media such as Facebook. Indeed, having content spread on Facebook by means of users sharing the posts of political parties and politicians has been pointed to as highly important. Based on suggestions from previous research, we investigate the relationship between shares and other Facebook post engagement opportunities such as comments and reactions. Formulating a series of hypotheses and research questions, a longitudinal study of the Norwegian political context is presented. The main findings show that while the Angry and Sad reactions emerge as positively related to the number of shares, Love and Care variations do not exhibit such clear relationships. Reviewing the findings in the light of previous scholarship, the results are interpreted as significative of the importance of negative emotions for online success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns around the definition of misinformation hamper ways of addressing purported problems associated with it, along with the fact that public understanding of the concept is often ignored. To this end, the present pilot survey study examines three broad issues, as follows: (1) contexts where the concept most applies to (i.e., face-to-face interactions, social media, news media, or all three contexts), (2) criteria people use to identify misinformation, and (3) motivations for sharing it. A total of 1897 participants (approximately 300 per country) from six different countries (Chile, Germany, Greece, Mexico, the UK, the USA) were asked questions on all three, along with an option to provide free text responses for two of them. The quantitative and qualitative findings reveal a nuanced understanding of the concept, with the common defining characteristics being claims presented as fact when they are opinion (71%), claims challenged by experts (66%), and claims that are unqualified by evidence (64%). Moreover, of the 28% (n = 538) of participants providing free text responses further qualifying criteria for misinformation, 31% of them mentioned critical details from communication (e.g., concealing relevant details or lacking evidence to support claims), and 41% mentioned additions in communication that reveal distortions (e.g., sensationalist language, exaggerating claims). Rather than being exclusive to social media, misinformation was seen by the full sample (n = 1897) as present in all communication contexts (59%) and is shared for amusement (50%) or inadvertently (56%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media may encourage novel ways of signaling that involve different purchase types (experiential vs. material), signaling frequencies (multiple vs. single signals), and other features unique to social media (e.g. hashtags). This work examines how purchase signals are received on social media and how these signaling variations affect signal receivers' perceptions of the authenticity of social media posts as well as the overall impressions receivers form of the signal sender. Data collected across six experiments show multiple material purchase signals lead to more negative impressions compared to multiple experiential purchase signals. Signal receivers perceive multiple material purchase posts as less authentic, which dampens their impressions of the signal sender. In line with this mechanism, the impression premium of experiential purchase signals disappears when receivers use other cues (monetary mentions, other users' comments, and marketer associations via hashtags) to infer a signal's lack of authenticity. Additional data also document downstream consequences on engagement. This work contributes theoretically to research in both signaling and social media and improves the understanding of substantive situations in which consumers' objectives of curating a positive image and creating engagement with their posts, collide with marketers' objectives of encouraging user-generated content and word of mouth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How often do political elites in the U.S. share low-quality news sources? Are there differences between the parties? While past work has investigated individuals sharing low-quality news sources, there are few large-scale analyses of the quality of information shared by political elites. As individuals rely on elite cues to inform their decision-making, officials sharing low-quality sites may increase polarization while providing legitimacy to low-quality outlets. We fill this gap by collecting more than 300,000 links shared on Facebook by U.S. members of Congress and measuring how often each party shares information from known low-quality news sources. We find that members of Congress share more links to low-quality sites than the public, that Republican members share considerably more than Democrats, and that this gap has increased over time. Finally, we investigate the potential mechanisms underlying this partisan gap and find that only Republicans receive increased engagement when sharing low- quality sites, suggesting asymmetric incentives to share low-quality news sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The insidious proliferation of online misinformation represents a significant societal problem. With a wealth of research dedicated to the topic, it is still unclear what determines fake news sharing. This paper comparatively examines fake and accurate news sharing in a novel experimental setting that manipulates news about terrorism. Design/methodology/approach: The authors follow an extended version of the uses-and-gratification framework for news sharing, complemented by variables commonly employed in fake news rebuttal studies. Findings: Logistic regression and classification trees revealed worry about the topic, media literacy, information-seeking and conservatism as significant predictors of willingness to share news online. No significant association was found for general analytical thinking, journalism skepticism, conspiracy ideation, uses-and-gratification motives or pass-time coping strategies. Practical implications: The current results broaden and expand the literature examining beliefs in and sharing of misinformation, highlighting the role of media literacy in protecting the public against the spread of fake news. Originality/value: This is, to the authors' knowledge, the first study to integrate a breadth of theoretically and empirically driven predictors of fake news sharing within a single experimental framework. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-12-2022-0693 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sharing experience via social media communication has been examined in psychology, sociology, communication and linguistic studies. While this research has mostly examined consumption experience and health issues, how people make meanings and develop interactions while sharing mundane matters needs more investigation. This paper reports on a pragmatic investigation into individuals sharing their exam experiences in social media groups. Data were collected from two support groups on Douban , a Chinese social networking site that encourages users to share their thoughts, interests and experiences. A total of 400 original posts, 200 each from a group sharing experiences of failure in examinations and a group sharing their success in examinations, were collected and analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings showed that the two groups were significantly different in the ways they voluntarily disclosed their identities and in the types of expressions they employed to refer to different participants. In addition, they differed significantly in how they sought or offered support in interactions. Similarities and differences between the two groups' sharing are discussed in relation to the instructions of the two groups, their identity construction, the affordances of social media, and the importance of politeness and face in Chinese culture. • This paper reports on a pragmatic investigation into individuals sharing their exam experiences in social media groups. • The failure and the success groups were significantly different in the ways they voluntarily disclosed their identities. • They were also significantly different in the types of expressions used to refer to different participants. • They differed significantly in how they sought or offered support in interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article revisits claims made a decade ago about the importance of the word "sharing" in the context of social network sites (SNSs). Based on an analysis of the home pages of 61 SNSs between the years 2011 and 2020, the findings incontrovertibly show that "sharing" has lost its central place in the terminology employed by social media platforms in their self-presentation. Where in the mid-2000s SNSs relied heavily on a rhetoric of sharing to promote their services, by 2020, this rhetoric had been almost entirely dropped. The research reported here implies that social media platforms no longer feel a need or desire to be associated with these cultural beliefs. Given this, questions are raised as to whether "sharing" remains a keyword for social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge-sharing (KS) barriers prevent organizations from capitalizing on their skills and knowledge assets. This research aimed to investigate the main barriers to knowledge-sharing and identify the commonly used practice of the knowledgesharing process in the construction company in Surabaya. Data was collected by sending questionnaires to the top management of large contractors (Qualification B) in Surabaya. Fifty-four questionnaires were collected and considered eligible for analysis. The Relative Importance Index (RII) method was used in this research. The results showed that internet/social media, e-mail, and face-to-face interaction are commonly used for knowledge-sharing. The results also showed that the top barrier to knowledge sharing was the lack of top management support and participation. Meanwhile, the top personal barrier was difficulties in generalizing knowledge from one project to another project. This study helped to understand the main barriers to the knowledge-sharing process in construction companies and provided some practical guidance for companies to deal with these barriers. Moreover, this study helped top management to provide strategies to alleviate the barriers to knowledgesharing within their organization in order to achieve the success of construction projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review aims (a) to investigate the motivations to share fake news on Social Media Platforms (SMPs) according to the Self-Determination Theory (SDT); (b) to identify the solutions to fight these motivations and the agents in charge of implementing them; and (c) the user's role in this process. We reviewed 64 journal articles published up to April 2022. Misinformation belief and entertainment stood out as the most cited intrinsic motivations, while self-promotion, conspiracy theory, and political ideology were the most cited extrinsic motivations in the reviewed literature. The main solutions to fight fake news spreading on SMPs are improving users' digital literacy, refining interventions, rating headlines, and sources, and promoting users' engagement to consume content sustainably. These interventions should be adopted by four agents: governments, SMPs, civil society, and private health organizations. However, the role of SMP users themselves is critical in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers often share word of mouth, and such interpersonal communication shapes attitudes and purchases. But while some research has examined what consumers talk about, there has been less attention to when consumers discuss. How does the distance from now (i.e., whether something is temporally near or far away) shape the likelihood of discussion? And might the effect of temporal distance on word of mouth vary based on whether those things happened in the past or will happen in the future? Five studies, including analyses of thousands of social media posts, address these questions. They suggest that consumers tend to talk about temporally near things, but that this is moderated by whether they are talking about the past or future (i.e., consumers talk about more temporally distant things when talking about the future). Accessibility seems to play an important role in these effects. While temporally near things tend to be more accessible, on average, goals and plans are more likely to remain active in the future, which shapes what gets discussed. These findings have implications for understanding drivers of word of mouth, how time shapes consumer behavior, and how companies can more effectively manage interpersonal communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated information literacy, social media use, and knowledge sharing practices among Undergraduates at the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria. The study employed the descriptive survey design to collect primary data from the respondents. A sample size of 396 out of 40,000 undergraduates was selected using Taro Yamene's formula. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select respondents across twelve faculties in the university. A validated self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. The findings revealed a statistically significant relationship between information literacy, social media use, and knowledge-sharing practices of undergraduates (F= 89.375, p<0.05). The finding exposes that information literacy (ß = 0. -1.074, p<0.05) and social media use (ß = -0.979, p<0.05) jointly had a significant interactive effect on knowledge-sharing practices of undergraduates. This paper concluded that the university enabling environment had a significant influence on information literacy, social media use, and knowledge-sharing practices among undergraduates. It was recommended that such efforts should be retained with a view to sustaining the existing culture of knowledge sharing among university undergraduates in the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have examined the consumption and spread of fake news on social media. Two notable gaps, though, exist in the extant literature. First, prior research has focused on the political orientation of users while ignoring the broader context of sharing, namely the perceived political orientation of their social media peers. Second, there is limited insight about how user states, especially those related to their judgment abilities, influence the critical evaluation of fake news on social media. This paper addresses these gaps by theorizing the roles of perceived peer political orientation and self-objectivity states of users in translating biased credibility assessments of fake news into biased sharing intentions. It reports on an 7experiment (n=408) that primed self-perceived objectivity (a state) in half of the participants to examine its efficacy in moderating the influence of credibility bias (the extent to which users believe the news that highlight ideas that are consistent with their political orientation more than fake news articles that highlight ideas that are inconsistent with their political orientation) on sharing bias (the extent to which they are likely to share fake news that highlight ideas that are consistent with their political orientation more than fake news that highlight ideas that are inconsistent with their political orientation) while accounting for the moderating effect of perceived peer political orientation (a contextual factor). We found that consistency of fake news with people's political orientation increased credibility bias and sharing bias and that credibility bias increased sharing bias. We also found that perceived alignment between a user and their peers' political orientation, as a social context, reduced the effect of credibility bias on sharing bias. Finally, we found mixed support for the moderating effects of primed self-objectivity on the influence of credibility bias on sharing bias; it affected only liberal-leaning participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selfies provide unique opportunities to explore, document, and interact with the self through photography. However, the inherent intrapersonal affordance of self-portraiture becomes a unique manifestation of masspersonal theory when selfies are shared, a step that is often assumed but not unpacked in selfie research. Therefore, it is essential to understand when and for whom these intrapersonal and interpersonal moments evolve into masspersonal moments or communication episodes. This study uses a novel strategy to investigate selfie behavior–the likelihood of taking and sharing selfies–to assess individual differences between selfie-takers, or “selfiers”. Discerning selfiers–people more likely to take than share selfies–report greater control and self-esteem compared to non-discerning selfiers, who are equally as likely to take as share selfies. Furthermore, control mediates the effect of selfier type on self-esteem; discerning selfiers report that others are not in control of their life, resulting in greater security regarding others’ perceptions of them. The current findings reveal the unique effects of differential deployment of selfies.

Although diverse political networks are seen as democratically valuable, online social networks enable the construction and maintenance of networks that are less diverse. In this study, we explore the cultivation of like-minded networks through blocking those sharing counter-attitudinal partisan memes and engaging with pro-attitudinal partisan memes. We then test the efficacy of an intervention to reduce the spread of homophily-inducing partisan memes. We present four experiments. Study 1 establishes that people react differently to partisan memes than to partisan news. Studies 1–4 confirm that people react differently to pro- and counter-attitudinal memes. Studies 3 and 4 provide limited evidence that reminding people of the diversity of their online networks can reduce digital behaviors that produce more homophilous networks. The results provide initial evidence that partisan memes may give rise to a spiral of homophily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can social media managers engage consumers to share posts with others? Extending regulatory mode theory, we demonstrate that high construal levels enable the integration of regulatory mode complementarity orientations, resulting in engagement and shares. Regulatory mode complementarity refers to the combination of high assessment (i.e., the motivation to "be right" by critically evaluating options) and high locomotion (i.e., the motivation to "act" by moving toward a goal). Specifically, this research proposes that an abstract (vs. concrete) construal allows these two orientations to work together, resulting in regulatory fit. Three text analysis field studies on marketer‐ and consumer‐generated Facebook and Twitter posts show that construal–regulatory mode fit increases social media sharing. Three follow‐up studies then show generalizability, establish causality, and demonstrate the role of engagement as the underlying mechanism driving the fit effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Sharenting, the act of parents sharing content related to their children on social media, has become a prevalent practice in today's digital age. However, concerns have been raised about the potential privacy violations and risks that this behavior may expose children to. This study aimed to investigate sharenting behaviors among Turkish parents and validate the Turkish version of the Sharenting Evaluation Scale (SES). Materials and Methods: Following World Health Organization guidelines, the original SES was translated into Turkish. The scale's content validity was evaluated by experts before being administered to 276 Turkish parents. Results: The overall reliability of the scale was determined to be 0.855, which indicates its strong reliability. To further enhance the scale's reliability, the tenth item was removed after examining item-total statistics, resulting in an improved Cronbach's alpha of 0.87 for the total scale. Subscale reliability was also satisfactory, with values of 0.92 for implications, 0.64 for social behavior, and 0.68 for self-control. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was employed to assess the construct validity of the scale. The chi-square test indicated a significant fit (p<0.001, chi-square/df = 241.1/100 = 2.411), supporting the scale's reliability and measurement ability. Conclusion: The Turkish version of the 16-item SES demonstrated good reliability and validity, making it a valuable tool for assessing sharenting behaviors among Turkish parents. By utilizing this scale, healthcare professionals and researchers can gain crucial insights into parental sharing practices on social media and better understand the potential risks and implications for children's privacy and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While research on flagging misinformation and disinformation has received much attention, we know very little about how the flagging of propaganda sources could affect news sharing on social media. Using a quasi-experimental design, we test the effect of source flagging on people's actual sharing behaviors. By analyzing tweets (N = 49,126) posted by 30 China's media accounts before and after Twitter's practice of labeling state-affiliated media, we reveal the corrective role that flagging plays in preventing people's sharing of information from propaganda sources. The findings suggest that the corrective effect occurs immediately after these accounts are labeled as state-affiliated media and it leads to a long-term reduction in news sharing, particularly for political content. The results contribute to the understanding of how flagging efforts affect user engagement in real-world conversations and highlight that the effect of corrective measures takes place in a dynamic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have explored the causes and consequences of public engagement with misinformation and, more recently, COVID-19 misinformation. However, there is still a need to understand the mechanisms that cause misinformation propagation on social media. In addition, evidence from non-Western societies remains rare. This study reports on survey evidence from eight countries to examine whether social media fatigue can influence users to believe misinformation, influencing their sharing intentions. Our insights also build on prior cognitive and personality literature by exploring how this mechanism is conditional upon users' cognitive ability and narcissism traits. The results suggest that social media fatigue can influence false beliefs of misinformation which translates into sharing on social media. We also find that those with high levels of cognitive ability are less likely to believe and share misinformation. However, those with low cognitive ability and high levels of narcissism are most likely to share misinformation on social media due to social media fatigue. This study is one of the first to provide cross-national comparative evidence highlighting the adverse effects of social media fatigue on misinformation propagation and establishing that the relationship is not universal but dependent on both cognitive and dark personality traits of individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the prevailing institutional logics within Western news outlets to examine the prevalent values and concerns around the social media news audience amid a time of great upheaval in the news industry. Through a qualitative content analysis of social media guidelines from mainstream news outlets the study finds that professional logics continue to dominate news organization goals with the journalists positioned as the professionals in charge of the news and their audiences still limited to largely passive consumer roles at best allowed to comment, like and share only after publication. While the findings show that the news organizations view their audiences as a consumer rather than collaborator, the study notes the emergence of two audience-oriented values which suggest that news organizations have already begun to respond to the ways in which their audiences are being reshaped by digital and social media even if those new technologies have not—yet—reshaped the organization's relationship with the audience. Overall, the study shows that professional logics continue to inform news organization attitudes in relation to their audiences as organizations continue to privilege the role of the news organization as the professional in charge of the content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to uncover the mechanism of partisan-motivated reasoning acting on fake news evaluation and social media sharing through an online experiment. We found that, although political identification influences trustworthiness of news source and perceived levels of satire in fake news, Democrats view news outlets as more trustworthy than Republicans, and Republicans view fake news as more satirical than Democrats. We determined that political congruence or incongruence does not affect subjects' ratings of veracity of fake news, which showed accuracy-motivated reasoning surpassed directional-motivated reasoning in the veracity evaluation process. This may be because trustworthiness and satire are types of information that are tied more closely to directional-motivated reasoning. For news diffusion, political identification and satire play a more important role in social media sharing. People are more likely to share satire. Moreover, Republicans tend to view fake news as more cynical and share fake news with a larger audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When people share news stories on social media, they appeal to transcendent values: showing care, creating a community, seeking certainty, or demonstrating competence. This places news sharing in the realm of ritual actions. This is not always successful, however. This paper argues that failure of these rituals indicates their importance and shows how news-sharing rituals adapt to maintain their relevance in an environment dominated by the smartphone and influenced the fear of misinformation. Twelve focus groups discussed news sharing and the discussions suggested first what kind of transcendent ritual values are important when sharing news; second, what happens when the ritual fails; and third how the ritual adapts in the face of failure to maintain appeals to transcendent values. It offers evidence to challenge the myth of the media centre, and to question the role of the individual taking personal responsibility for the adaptation of ritual behaviour that contributes to the cohesion and survival of communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some major social media companies are announcing plans to tokenize user engagements, derived from blockchain-based decentralized social media. This would bring financial and reputational incentives for engagement, which might lead users to post more objectionable content. Previous research showed that financial or reputational incentives for accuracy decrease the willingness to share misinformation. However, it is unclear to what extent such outcome would change if engagements instead of accuracy were incentivized, which is a more realistic scenario. To address this question, we conducted a survey experiment to examine the effects of hypothetical token incentives. We find that a simple nudge about the possibility of earning token-based points for the achieved user engagements increases the willingness to share different kinds of news, including misinformation. The presence of penalties for objectionable posts diminishes the positive effect of tokenization rewards on misinformation sharing, but it does not eliminate it. These results have policy implications for content moderation practices if platforms embrace decentralization and engagement tokenization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although misinformation and correction sharing is a topic that spans various domains and disciplines, the ultimate aim of such research is to better understand how to reduce misinformation sharing while motivating correction sharing in an increasingly decentralized and dispersed informational landscape. This review aims to (a) provide a systematic and structured overview of empirical studies on both misinformation sharing and correction sharing, as differentiated phenomenon, by examining article elements such as theoretical lenses, methodologies, topics of research, and (b) collect and organize factors predicting both misinformation sharing and correction sharing into an integrated model, which provides the foundation for an interdisciplinary framework of misinformation sharing and correction sharing. A total of 64 relevant empirical articles published before October 2021 were identified for analysis. Finally, a discussion regarding the academic and practical implications of this study, and gaps in the literature aim to provide direction for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Misinformation on social media has become a horrendous problem in our society. Fact-checks on information often fall behind the diffusion of misinformation, which can lead to negative impacts on society. This research studies how different factors may affect the spread of fact-checks over the internet. We collected a dataset of fact-checks in a six-month period and analyzed how they spread on Twitter. The spread of fact-checks is measured by the total retweet count. The factors/variables include the truthfulness rating, topic of information, source credibility, etc. The research identifies truthfulness rating as a significant factor: conclusive fact-checks (either true or false) tend to be shared more than others. In addition, the source credibility, political leaning, and the sharing count also affect the spread of fact-checks. The findings of this research provide practical insights into accelerating the spread of the truth in the battle against misinformation online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media has expanded the possibilities for citizens around the world to share knowledge and interact about scientific advancements, facilitating to raise public awareness of and interest in science. Amidst this context, scientists in all disciplines are intensifying the use of social media as a data source to capture what citizens express about their achievements, beyond dissemination purposes. Content analysis is the generalised method used by researchers to explore the interactions of citizens in social media about science. In this commentary paper, we explore the social media communicative observations as an emerging technique in the social media analytics to include the communicative dimension of science in the analysis of interactions between scientists and citizens. The implications to empower dialogically the social media communities interested in science are shared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Billions of people across the globe use social media to acquire and share information. A large and growing body of research examines how consuming online content affects what people know. The present research investigates a complementary, yet previously unstudied question: how might sharing online content affect what people think they know? Sharing signals expertise, and people frequently internalize their public behavior into their private self‐concepts. We therefore posit that sharing information on social media may cause people to believe they are as knowledgeable as their posts make them appear. We examine this possibility in the context of "sharing without reading," a phenomenon that allows us to isolate the effect of sharing on subjective knowledge from any influence of reading or objective knowledge. Six studies provide correlational (study 1) and causal (studies 2, 2a) evidence that sharing—even without reading—increases subjective knowledge, and test the internalization mechanism by varying the degree to which sharing publicly commits the sharer to an expert identity (studies 3–5). A seventh study investigates potential consequences of sharing‐inflated subjective knowledge on downstream behavior in the domain of financial decision‐making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]