People who share videos about social issues aren’t just lazy slacktivists, study shows

It's easy to dismiss your friends sharing political videos online as slacktivists, but a new study shows it could have an impact.

Researchers at the University of Michigan found that students were more willing to volunteer, donate or engage in behavior to help social causes after sharing a video on Facebook.

"Proponents of the slacktivism narrative argue that by participating in politics in easy ways on social media—such as signing a petition or sharing a video—young people show their network how virtuous they are, thereby excusing themselves from engaging in more difficult offline action like attending a rally or volunteering for a nonprofit," said Dan Lane, a PhD candidate in UMich's Department of Communication Studies.

But it actually does something. Their study asked 178 college students to watch three "social cause" videos and them either share one on their own timeline or share it anonymously through someone else's profile.

Students who shared a video publicly were then more willing to volunteer than those who shared anonymously. The researchers called it a "reverse Slacktivism effect" – if you declare support online for a social cause, you are then more likely to take real-life action.

The experts also found that people's willingness to volunteer was strongest for students who don't use social media to engage in social issues.

"This suggests," Lane says, "that sharing social cause videos on social media might be one pathway to engagement for young people who don't typically get involved in social causes."