The Presence of Virtue Signalling on Social Media Agreement

Abstract

Social media has facilitated the rapid spread of virtue signalling (the display of moral values, worth, and significance to others). The current study aimed to assess if the presence of virtue signalling affects agreement for statements concerning topics such as charities, social justice, and politics. A total of 207 participants (62.3% female) aged between 18 and 80 (M = 41.19 years, SD = 18.57 years) were recruited from Facebook. An online Qualtrics survey was used to collect data on support for the topics of charities, social justice, and politics. Participants were randomly presented with simple vignettes including either virtue signalling or not, for each of the three topics listed above. It was found that the presence of virtue signalling buffered against decreasing attitudinal agreement compared to control slogans for the topics of politics F(1, 205) = 20.945, p < .001, η_p² = .093 and social justice F(1, 205) = 7.00 , p <.001 , η_p² = .063 but not charities (1, 205) = 3.377, p =0.19, η_p² = .047 . It was concluded that virtue signalling can help to improve promotion and support for a cause, but was not as effective for charities.