Context and Match Between Context and Framework Components

This chapter tackled three major aspects of the social context: culture, narratives, and language; social comparison of beliefs and norms; and the structure and composition of one’s social network. These factors may have an impact not only on sharing behavior directly, but also on motivations and reactions to narratives and information. Culture, whether conceptualized as cross-national dimensions or culture-specific narratives, may impact how a particular piece of information is viewed, for instance. Comparisons between one’s own beliefs and that perceived to be held by one’s social group may influence how socially acceptable it is to state a particular belief. Echo chambers of people with the same belief may become more extreme. Indeed, these contextual factors also interact with each other, such that culture can be associated with structural differences in social networks. Although the reviewed studies have complex results with regards to social network ties, connections matter and are imperative to the spreading of information. This research also suggests that community structures, the composition of the community (homogeneous or diverse), perceptions of the specific audience, and network size are important factors in the spread, propagation and virality of information online.