Whether it’s an insensitive joke on Twitter, or a controversial Facebook photo, every day something new sparks outrage on social media. Users are quick to criticize each other from the safety of their keyboards or smartphones, but are these reactions genuine?
The research of Ivey PhD student Jeff Rotman says not necessarily.
Rotman presented his work on the topic at the 10th Annual Ivey Symposium on Consumer Behaviour. His study, The Case of Moral Peacocking: Identity Reinforcement on Social Media, asks the question, “Are people saying they’re outraged on social media because they’re sincerely outraged, or because they want to be seen as outraged?”
Rotman argues the latter, which he refers to as moral peacocking.
Related to this story
“Moral peacocking is the desire to publicly respond with a perceived out-group with the intention to signal one’s personality to others,” Rotman said.
In other words, when a large group is reacting to something publicly, an individual might feel inclined to join in to show that they, too, care about the issue.
He suggests there are three reasons why people moral peacock on social media:
- People can infer morality from online posts. If we want to show others what we believe, we post to social media.
- People believe their friends are offended by what’s going on, and therefore they should be offended. If we think our friends are offended, we are more likely to vocalize that we are too.
- Social media is a public display. People often feel the need to show the “best version of themselves” online.
About the symposium
June Cotte, Symposium on Consumer Behaviour organizer as well as Faculty Director of Research and Marketing Professor at Ivey, points to some of the research that attendees have heard from both qualitative and experimental researchers over the years. The symposium has covered such topics as how families make decisions about elder care, the sharing economy (even before the phrase hit the mainstream), the consumption of Botox, the pain of paying that consumers experience, and how consumers make sense of complex hybrid product innovations.
"The event has forged ties between faculty and students across the consumer behavior spectrum, and helped launch doctoral students into their careers as faculty members," said Cotte. "The end result is a tight group of like-minded researchers stretching from the University of Michigan to Queen’s University who collaborate and share ideas on an ongoing basis."
