“Sharing without Reading” on Social Media Leads to Inflated Subjective Knowledge

Authors

Frank Zheng, The University of Texas at AustinFollow
Adrian Ward, The University of Texas at AustinFollow
Susan Broniarczyk, The University of Texas at AustinFollow

Abstract

Extant research on social contagion assumes that information spreads as sharers deliberately process external information, then decide whether or not to share it; that is, as each sharer processes this information, s/he is “infected” with new knowledge. We propose that “sharing without reading” represents a distinct phenomenon in which information “carriers” spread content without being infected by it. Evidence from lab experimental studies suggest that sharing without reading leads to increases in subjective, but not objective, knowledge.

Recommended Citation

Zheng, Frank; Ward, Adrian; and Broniarczyk, Susan, "“Sharing without Reading” on Social Media Leads to Inflated Subjective Knowledge" (2017). DIGIT 2017 Proceedings. 9.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/digit2017/9