Where the Ball Starts Rolling? An Empirical Investigation into Initial Opinion Formation on Social Media Platforms

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Puthineedi, Venu; Jha, Ashish Kumar
• 署名单位: Trinity College Dublin
• 刊物名称: INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7047; 1526-5536
• DOI: 10.1287/isre.2024.1589
• 发表日期: 2026-04-07
• 关键词: initial opinion formation; schema activation; digital identity; fake news; fluency; memory; cues; user

摘要

Social media platforms expose users to an overwhelming volume of novel and often unverified information, shaping opinions that influence behavior both online and offline. The formation of initial opinions in such environments is critical, as these early impressions guide subsequent information processing, decision making, and belief systems. Drawing on cognitive psychology and information systems theories, this research examines how cognitive mechanisms and digital identity factors influence opinion formation during information consumption on social media. Across three experiments, this study advances understanding of initial opinion dynamics. Study 1 (n = 185) establishes that initial opinions begin to stabilize after a bounded volume of consistent exposure, revealing a sufficiency pattern. Study 2 (n = 246) tests whether the veracity of information influences engagement, revealing that users' interaction with information is largely unaffected by its factual accuracy during early, low-effort processing, emphasizing the role of heuristic, schema-driven evaluation over objective truth assessment. Study 3 (n = 179) explores the impact of digital identity cues, finding that users are more likely to trust information from profiles displaying unverified titles (e.g., Dr.) than from verified expert influencers. Overall, the findings document how early-stage initial opinions form under bounded exposure, how these evaluations persist and shape engagement, and how digital identity cues activate evaluative schemas within contemporary social media environments. Practically, it offers critical insights for designing early-stage, identity-aware interventions to promote responsible information dissemination and foster more informed digital social media engagement.