Abstract
Social news, unlike video games or TV programs, conveys real-life interactions. Theoretically, social news in which people help or harm each other and violate rules should influence both prosocial and violation behaviors. In two experiments, we demonstrated the spreading effects of social news in a social interaction context emphasizing social conventions and a nonsocial interaction context emphasizing moral norms. Across the two studies, the results showed that positive social news increased cooperation (decreased defection) but had no effect on cheating, whereas negative social news increased cheating but with no change in cooperation (or defection). We conclude that there is a spreading impact of positive social news in the conventional norm domain and of negative social news in the moral norm domain.
Highlights
As we enter the digital era, the proliferation of digital platforms supplementing traditional sources such as television, radio, and newspapers has resulted in people spending much more time with the news than was the case a decade ago [1]
Post-hoc analysis revealed that participants in the positive social news group (M ± SD = 0.258 ± 0.210) showed a lower defection rate compared to both the neutral (M ± SD = 0.413 ± 0.211, t (42) = -2.557, p = 0.013, Fig 2A) and negative social news group (M ± SD = 0.508 ± 0.180, t (40) = -4.028, p < 0.001, Fig 2A)
Because defection behavior decreased in the positive condition, while no significant increase was observed in negative condition, this may suggest that only positive social news affect defection behaviors
Summary
As we enter the digital era, the proliferation of digital platforms supplementing traditional sources such as television, radio, and newspapers has resulted in people spending much more time with the news than was the case a decade ago [1]. A news item may be spread across societies and discussed widely by people within minutes via social media platforms, which may influence human behavior and social activities [3]. Abundant literature has examined the influence of media content (e.g., video games, TV shows, and videos) on human behaviors [4, 5]; for example, playing violent video games has been found to cause people to behave aggressively towards other people [6, 7], decrease prosocial behaviors (such as cooperative behavior) [8], and increase physiological arousal and aggression-related thoughts and feelings [9], both in short-term and in long-term across cultures [5], but the links among these are still inconsistent [10, 11]. The same results were obtained even after controlling for mood state and exposure to violent TV programs in real life [13]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
