Impression-Motivated News Consumption

Abstract

Abstract. Social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook are increasingly used as sources of news. The present research aimed to investigate whether this new media context affects the way in which readers process news articles and form their opinions on current debates. In an application of the heuristic-systematic model of persuasion, it was assumed that the high salience of self-presentation and interpersonal contacts in social media triggers an impression-motivated mode of reasoning in which readers base their attitudes more strongly on the majority opinion and social pressures. In a pre-registered laboratory experiment ( N = 210) in which participants read a news article, the media context (SNS vs. SNS with anticipation of future interaction vs. online news site) and the valence of the displayed user comments (positive vs. negative) were varied as between-subject factors. It was hypothesized that user comments are more influential when being logged in to Facebook than on classic online news sites, particularly when expecting future opinion expression about the topic and among people with a strong self-monitoring tendency. Results showed significant effects of comment valence on readers’ attitudes and valence of thoughts, however, this pattern also occurred in the setting of online news sites and was not moderated by self-monitoring. Findings are discussed with regard to the theoretical predictions of the heuristic-systematic model on following the majority opinion and practical implications for an informed citizenry.