# Belief-consistent information is most shared despite being the least surprising

## TL;DR

People share information that aligns with their beliefs more, even if it's not surprising, challenging traditional views on information value.

## Contribution

The study shows belief-consistent information is shared more despite being less surprising, highlighting the role of semantic meaning.

## Key findings

- Belief-consistent information is shared more than belief-inconsistent information.
- Surprise is not the main driver of sharing; belief consistency plays a larger role.
- Novelty manipulation does not predict sharing behavior or surprise.

## Abstract

In the classical information theoretic framework, information “value” is proportional to how novel/surprising the information is. Recent work building on such notions claimed that false news spreads faster than truth online because false news is more novel and therefore surprising. However, another determinant of surprise, semantic meaning (e.g., information’s consistency or inconsistency with prior beliefs), should also influence value and sharing. Examining sharing behavior on Twitter, we observed separate relations of novelty and belief consistency with sharing. Though surprise could not be assessed in those studies, belief consistency should relate to less surprise, suggesting the relevance of semantic meaning beyond novelty. In two controlled experiments, belief-consistent (vs. belief-inconsistent) information was shared more despite consistent information being the least surprising. Manipulated novelty did not predict sharing or surprise. Thus, classical information theoretic predictions regarding perceived value and sharing would benefit from considering semantic meaning in contexts where people hold pre-existing beliefs.