Why we’re skeptical of the emotions we see on our screens
ITHACA, N.Y. — If you’ve poured your heart out on social media about a political issue, it might have felt cathartic — but it likely wasn’t persuasive, new Cornell University research finds.
Americans are skeptical of emotional comments they see in their news and social media feeds, political scientist Talbot Andrews reports in “Emotions on Our Screens.” Over six experiments, involving nearly 6,400 participants, viewers questioned the sincerity of fear or sadness people expressed about climate change in simulated news reports, text messages, and TikTok posts. Such comments were rated as less authentic and appropriate than more neutral ones — even when the observer agreed politically with the speaker.
“Making people emotional is a great way to motivate them to care about an issue. But expressing your own emotions is not necessarily going to change others’ minds about that issue,” said Andrews, an assistant professor of government.
With today’s media environment exposing people to emotional expression more than ever, Andrews spoke with the Cornell Chronicle about the findings. Selected excerpts are below.
– – –
Skepticism persists across platforms
“We thought people might see emotions as more authentic in news articles, where journalists act as gatekeepers, compared to social media, where people have editorial control before sharing anything. Surprisingly, we didn’t find many differences. Skepticism was stronger when viewers saw a sad face, rather than just text, in simulated TikTok screenshots. People thought that seemed especially inappropriate.”
Political agreement doesn’t eliminate skepticism
“People are skeptical when they disagree with social media posts at all, but the effect of emotional expression is pretty similar either way. We saw the same pattern in an experiment featuring posts from a climate skeptic. People tended to see the emotion as manipulative. Like, ‘I think you’re crying crocodile tears to make me feel bad about this, and I see through that ploy.’”
Emotional posts don’t reduce concern, just raise eyebrows
“[Backlash toward emotional posts] seems localized to the person who’s being emotional. It’s more that people will be skeptical of your sincerity in posting, but participants were no less worried about climate change because they saw someone get emotional about it. Study participants didn’t punish emotional content, just viewed it as less appropriate and authentic than more stoic expressions.”
Expressing emotion can help, even if it doesn’t persuade
“Emotional expression can serve an important role, helping people find a community that cares about their issue. Even if it doesn’t achieve any influential goal — like persuading others or building social media clout — expressing emotions often makes people feel better. The takeaway is not that people should keep their feelings to themselves, but that such expression won’t always be taken at face value.”
The complete Q&A is available here.
Cornell University has dedicated television and audio studios available for media interviews.
-30-
Article Title
Emotions on Our Screens
No comments:
Post a Comment