Cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on Twitter
We investigate the relationship between individual differences in cognitive reflection and behavior on the social media platform Twitter, using a convenience sample of N = 1,901 individuals from Prolific. We find that people who score higher on the Cognitive Reflection Test—a widely used measure of...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/144235 |
| _version_ | 1826190382381137920 |
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| author | Mosleh, Mohsen Pennycook, Gordon Arechar, Antonio A Rand, David G |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Mosleh, Mohsen Pennycook, Gordon Arechar, Antonio A Rand, David G |
| author_sort | Mosleh, Mohsen |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We investigate the relationship between individual differences in cognitive reflection and behavior on the social media platform Twitter, using a convenience sample of N = 1,901 individuals from Prolific. We find that people who score higher on the Cognitive Reflection Test—a widely used measure of reflective thinking—were more discerning in their social media use, as evidenced by the types and number of accounts followed, and by the reliability of the news sources they shared. Furthermore, a network analysis indicates that the phenomenon of echo chambers, in which discourse is more likely with like-minded others, is not limited to politics: people who scored lower in cognitive reflection tended to follow a set of accounts which are avoided by people who scored higher in cognitive reflection. Our results help to illuminate the drivers of behavior on social media platforms and challenge intuitionist notions that reflective thinking is unimportant for everyday judgment and decision-making. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:39:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/144235 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:39:08Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1442352023-04-19T20:22:38Z Cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on Twitter Mosleh, Mohsen Pennycook, Gordon Arechar, Antonio A Rand, David G Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society We investigate the relationship between individual differences in cognitive reflection and behavior on the social media platform Twitter, using a convenience sample of N = 1,901 individuals from Prolific. We find that people who score higher on the Cognitive Reflection Test—a widely used measure of reflective thinking—were more discerning in their social media use, as evidenced by the types and number of accounts followed, and by the reliability of the news sources they shared. Furthermore, a network analysis indicates that the phenomenon of echo chambers, in which discourse is more likely with like-minded others, is not limited to politics: people who scored lower in cognitive reflection tended to follow a set of accounts which are avoided by people who scored higher in cognitive reflection. Our results help to illuminate the drivers of behavior on social media platforms and challenge intuitionist notions that reflective thinking is unimportant for everyday judgment and decision-making. 2022-08-04T18:12:01Z 2022-08-04T18:12:01Z 2021 2022-08-04T17:53:11Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/144235 Mosleh, Mohsen, Pennycook, Gordon, Arechar, Antonio A and Rand, David G. 2021. "Cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on Twitter." Nature Communications, 12 (1). en 10.1038/S41467-020-20043-0 Nature Communications Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Springer Science and Business Media LLC Nature |
| spellingShingle | Mosleh, Mohsen Pennycook, Gordon Arechar, Antonio A Rand, David G Cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on Twitter |
| title | Cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on Twitter |
| title_full | Cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on Twitter |
| title_fullStr | Cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on Twitter |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on Twitter |
| title_short | Cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on Twitter |
| title_sort | cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on twitter |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/144235 |
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