Message self and social relevance increases intentions to share content - Correlational and causal evidence from six studies.

Abstract

Information transmission within social networks is crucial for widespread attitudinal and behavioral change. We propose that the value of sharing information increases when people perceive messages as more relevant to themselves and to people they know, resulting in stronger intentions to share. Six online studies (N participants = 3,727; messages = 362; message ratings = 30,954) showed robust evidence that perceived message self and social relevance are positively related to sharing intentions. Correlationally, self and social relevance were uniquely related to sharing intentions, both within- and between-person. Specification curve analysis revealed that the direction of these relationships were consistent across message content, medium, and sharing audience. A preregistered experiment showed that manipulating the self and social relevance of messages causally increased sharing intentions compared to a control condition. These findings highlight self and social relevance as psychological mechanisms that motivate information sharing that can be targeted to promote sharing across contexts.