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A Tulane University study explains why politically-charged content gets more engagement from those who disagree. Researchers found a "confrontation effect," where people are more likely to interact with content that challenges their views than those that align with them.

The study analyzed data from Twitter, Facebook, and online experiments over time, including during the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and found that users frequently react to opposing viewpoints with heightened engagement, often driven by outrage.

"The research helps explain the large amount of toxic discourse we observe online. Our results reveal that individuals are strongly driven to voice their outrage toward those with whom they disagree," said study lead author Daniel Mochon, the Edward H. Austin Jr. Professor of Business Administration and an associate professor of marketing at Tulane University's A. B. Freeman School of Business.

"While previous studies show that people avoid content inconsistent with their beliefs, we found that counter-ideological content actually drives higher engagement."

The study was published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

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