Social media users think they are educated about the stuff they post even if they haven’t read the article or have simply seen the title, a new study has found.
Sharing content online can create this rise in confidence because by putting information online, sharers declare their expertise. They have an inflated sense of self-knowledge, feeling as informed as their post suggests.
One of the researchers claimed that people are more likely to take risks when they feel more competent. This is a perilous situation, according to a recent University of Texas study, because individuals follow specific people on social media in the belief that they are educated.
Participants of the study thought that they knew more when they were sharing articles under their own identity instead of an alias. “If people feel more knowledgeable on a topic, they also feel they maybe don’t need to read or learn additional information on that topic. This miscalibrated sense of knowledge can be hard to correct,” said researchers.
Findings also suggest that when social media platforms introduce ways to encourage people to read articles before sharing, it leads to positive outcomes.
Recent data from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism suggested that only 51% of consumers who visit an online news story page read the whole article. 26% of them read the article partly and the other 22% just look at the headlines or a few lines.
