‘Confrontation effect’ creates social media engagement [Video]

A new Tulane University study explains why politically charged content on social media gets more engagement from those who disagree.

Lead author Daniel Mochon says researchers found what they call a “confrontation effect.”

“When people are really angry, that sort of motivates them to fight back and stand up against this sort of content,” says Mochon. “They essentially want to defend their views by attacking the source of this content.”

Mochon says people seem to be more empowered when the person they’re arguing with is far away.

“It’s a lot easier to stand up to people when they’re further away,” Mochon points out. “There’s more social distance. There are fewer consequences to standing up to people online.”

Mochon says constantly arguing hot-button topics online can have negative consequences offline.

“It is possible that this outrage that’s being fueled online eventually bleeds over to the real world,” Mochon says, “and people …