Social media can spark powerful responses when activists post a call to action, but people are searching for authenticity when they scrutinise an organiser's underlying motives.
Flinders University researchers have examined the role that social media plays in expanding social movements, and found that perceptions about the motives of online activists can significantly affect the willingness of others to participate.
"Social media is an important tool used by supporters of social movements to persuade others to participate - but people who engage in online collective action may be perceived as acting for self-serving reasons, and these perceptions can greatly impact the effectiveness of collective action," says lead researcher Dr Lisette Yip, from Flinders' College of Human Sciences and Culture.
"It raises a question of when people who take online collective action are believed to be acting for self-serving reasons, can they still be effective in persuading others to support the cause and expand these social movements?"
Flinders University researchers conducted three experiments that suggest the answer is no, with bystanders saying they are less likely to be persuaded to engage in collective action by activist leaders they perceive to be acting insincerely.
Participants viewed posts or an immersive social media feed where a user encouraged them to take action for a political cause. They stated that they acted out of either genuine concern (autonomous motivation), to avoid guilt and social disapproval (controlled motivation), or did not specify (baseline).
Participants who viewed controlled-motivated posts perceived the user as being less autonomously motivated and were less likely to socially identify as supporters or take collective action. This perception made them less willing to sign a petition, or take any other actions for the cause.
"Movements will be more effective at mobilising online support when they are seen to come from autonomous motives," says Dr Yip. "Social movement organisers and those who wish to convince their peers to support a cause they care about should consider the underlying motives conveyed in their messages, and should seek to foster genuine concern among their audiences so that they, too, can become effective advocates."
Although social media posts may help raise awareness about social issues regardless of motives, the advocates who are perceived as being externally motivated are less effective than those who are perceived as sincere.
The research - "Are they virtue-signalling or sincere? The impact of perceived motives on the effectiveness of online collective action", by Lisette Yip, Emma Thomas, Hawa Muhammad Farid and Noor Tahir - has been published in New Media and Society. DOI: 10.1177/14614448261475059
