Social media sites often present users with social exclusion information that may inhibit intelligent thinking, according to a new study that takes a critical look not just at Facebook and other similar platforms, but at the idiosyncrasies of the systems these sites operate on. The short-term effects of these posts lead to negative emotions in the users who read them and can influence thought processes in a way that makes users more susceptible to advertising messages.
What is particularly worrying is that the social exclusion in these posts is not intentional. Users do not explicitly share exclusion information with their friends. Nevertheless, social media sites make most of the information available from one friend to another and the consequences arising from the interpretation of these posts are significant.
For the study, the researchers created scenarios designed to reflect typical interactions on Facebook, and 194 individuals took part in an experiment that ensured exposure to social exclusion. The researchers presented a group with a scenario involving two close friends, where one of those friends had shared information that excluded the participant. The other group saw a feed that contained no social exclusion information.
The results showed that individuals exposed to social exclusion information with their closest friends had more negative emotions than the control group. They also tended to devote more mental resources to understanding their social networks, making them particularly sensitive to stimuli such as advertising.
