THE EFFECTS OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS AND PERSONALITY ON NEWS SHARING BEHAVIOUR

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the effects of induced negative emotions—anger and fear—on individuals’ tendency to act on given news information and in particular, their news sharing behaviour. A secondary aim is to assess for potential modulating effects of personality factors—extraversion and neuroticism—on individuals’ tendency to act on news information. In an experimental setup, three conditions—anger, fear and neutral emotion—were manipulated using news vignettes that embodied different appraisal patterns for emotion. Participants were randomly assigned to read the vignettes. They then responded to a questionnaire that measured their emotional responses, general and specific tendency to act on the news, and personality levels for extraversion and neuroticism. The results showed that fear, rather than anger, led to a stronger tendency to act on news information. This provides empirical support for correlational findings from media studies on how negative emotions influence news sharing behaviour. The results provided partial support for the modulating effect of extraversion, but not neuroticism, on the tendency to act on news information. Further exploration of the influence of personality factors on news sharing behaviour is required. Implications for the role of individuals in the virality of news information were discussed.