Turns out, not many people change their minds because of something they see on social media

Think your political rants on Facebook or Twitter are persuasive enough to get other people to change their opinions? Don’t flatter yourself.

A recent study from the Pew Research Center reveals that exposure to opposing views on social media has not caused most Americans to change their own stance on issues in the past year. Just 14 percent of the 4,594 US adults surveyed between May 29 and June 11 said they have changed their views about a political or social issue in the past year due to something they saw on social media.

“Certain groups, particularly young men, are more likely than others to say they’ve modified their views because of social media,” according to Pew Research Assistant Kristen Bialik. “Around three-in-ten men ages 18 to 29 (29 percent) say their views on a political or social issue changed in the past year due to social media.”

More Democrats and liberal-leaning independents have re-thought their views because of social media posts this year than Republicans and conservative-leaning Independents have, Pew found.

“Although most people have not changed their views on a political or social issue in the past year because of social media, those who have also tend to place a high level of personal importance on social media as a tool for personal political engagement and activism,” Bialik wrote.

Meanwhile, Pew conducted a similar survey with slightly different wording in 2016 and found that 20 percent of social media users had modified their stance on a social or political issue because of something they saw on one of these services. That time, the research firm asked users if they had ever done so. The more recent survey focused on whether users had in the past year.

This article originally published at PCMag
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