Message Self and Social Relevance Increases Intentions to Share Content: Correlational and Causal Evidence from Six Studies

For your marketing

Possible founder application

A prompt for testing whether a technical article explains why it matters to the reader and to someone they work with. Measure actual forwarding or downstream behavior in your own context rather than assuming stated intention predicts reach.

Reported result

What the study found

Self-relevance and social relevance were each positively associated with intentions to share. A preregistered framing experiment found that making relevance salient causally increased sharing intentions; the relative pathways differed between broadcasting broadly and sending directly to someone.

Research question

What the authors investigated

Are people more willing to share messages they see as relevant to themselves or to people they know, and does the audience context matter?

Design

Six online studies with adult U.S. participants. The studies included correlational and within-/between-person analyses across messages and sharing contexts; a preregistered framing experiment manipulated self and social relevance.

Sample and setting

3,727 adult participants in the United States rated 362 messages, producing 30,954 message ratings. Topics included COVID-19, voting, general health and climate change; formats included social posts and news articles.

Scope and transfer

Limitations to keep in view

Primary outcome is stated intention to share, not observed organic sharing, qualified visits or purchases. The message topics are public-interest content rather than commercial SaaS marketing; adult U.S. online participants do not represent every audience.

Research sources

APA publisher record and abstract plus an accessible accepted manuscript link. Profile claims follow the reported abstract; the paper should be consulted for measures and analysis details.

Additional research source ↗