Social media has a reputation as being a negative and hostile place where opinions are polarized and arguments and incivility are always just around the corner.  New research from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management explores what encourages us to post online.

The study finds that we’re far happier sharing content that is framed as being supportive than we are that which is framed as being hostile. That’s true regardless of whether the opinion itself is positive or negative.

“There are a lot of controversial issues where both sides talk about what they support – pro-life and pro-choice on abortion, for example,” the researchers say. “It’s very rare that we see positions that primarily frame themselves in terms of what they oppose.”

Framing the message

The researchers conducted 10 studies in the field, the lab, and online to explore the concept of “support-oppose framing”.  The analysis found that whereas there were around 50,000 tweets made with supportive framing to every 1,100 that were more negatively framed.

What’s more, the supportive tweets were shared far more, with 624 retweets on average compared to just 28 retweets for oppositional tweets.  These general ratios persisted regardless of the topic, including same-sex marriage, self-isolation from Covid, gun control, or one of any number of other hot button topics.

The study found that there are various psychological drivers behind this phenomenon.  When we show support for something, it feels much more like a representation of our values than when we oppose something.  With our inherent desire to be liked so strong, this tends to result in supportive statements as it feels like we’re making a better social impression.

Self-isolation

The authors believe this was especially so when people were asked about the importance of self-isolating during Covid.  It emerged that people were far happier sharing supportively framed messages on the topic, with most saying that doing this felt more in line with their values and would also leave a positive impression on others.

The study reminds us that social media provides an interesting Petri dish for social psychologists to understand why we do and say what we do.  The researchers believe that their work is the first to examine how important the way our opinions are framed is in terms of what we choose to share.

The findings are interesting not only to give us insight into how support for various causes can be gained, but also from a sociological perspective in terms of how people can be engaged in debate, even on previously prickly topics.

“If we’re looking to encourage positive changes in people’s behavior or attitudes, we can change how we talk about those ideas,” the researchers conclude.