When do we share digital content more?

A 2011 study by Berger (2011) from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, published in Psychological Science,  titled  “Arousal Increases Social Transmission of Information,” uses experimental studies to establish whether or not certain physical or emotional states might make people more likely to share personal and public news. To prompt “arousal,” subjects performed physical exercise or were exposed to emotion-inducing media.

The study’s findings include:

1.     In a two-part experiment involving 93 people, those who were shown videos that stirred emotions of anxiety or amusement (high arousal) were more willing to share information they later encountered than those subjects who were shown videos prior that evoked feelings of contentment or sadness (low arousal.)

2.      In a two-part experiment involving 40 people, those who jogged in place and were then shown a news article were 42% more likely to email the article to someone they knew than those who had been sitting in place prior.

3.     The phenomenon of increased information sharing does not seem to be contingent on the positive or negative qualities of a situation: “Situations that heighten arousal should boost social transmission, regardless of whether they are positive (e.g., inaugurations) or negative (e.g., panics) in nature" Berger (2011).

References: 

Berger, J. (2011). Arousal Increases Social Transmission of Information. Psychological Science, 22(7),

        891–893. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611413294