Trusting Social Media News: Role of Social Influence and Emotions Using EEG as a Brain Imaging Tool

Abstract

Social Networking Sites have been all-pervasive in our lives. With a staggering 296 billion social media users in India itself, social networking sites have a considerable impact in shaping the views and opinions of people. These platforms provide people to not only lend voices to the cause they care for but also enable them to remain regularly updated with the latest news stories related to the cause. However, how social media affect a user’s perception of a particular news feed item lacks clarity. In this paper, we analyze the trustworthiness of the widely circulated news feed items. Specifically, we examine the role of social influence and emotions in deciding social media users’ trustworthiness of feed items by conducting EEG experiments. By demonstrating how the perceived trustworthiness of social media feed items is affected by our neurobiology, our study has significant implications for both information systems research and management. The study also has implications for policymakers and society.