Angry comments on social media posts might increase your clicks, but they simultaneously decrease the actual donations your cause receives.
April 23, 2026
Original Paper
Social Media Comments
SSRN · 6529698
The Takeaway
Opposing comments and heated debates drive high engagement metrics like reactions and shares for social media content. However, this same conflict causes a significant drop in off-platform positive attitudes and real-world financial support. Many activists assume that a viral post with thousands of comments is a sign of success for their movement. In reality, the friction generated by these comments actively harms the mission by alienating potential donors. Platforms are optimized for a type of activity that is fundamentally at odds with the goals of the people using them.
From the abstract
Comments are a central feature of social media platforms, enabling horizontal communication among diverse users. This paper studies how the presence and stance of comments on social media posts affect subsequent on-platform engagement and off-platform attitudes and behavior on socially important issues. For identification, we develop a novel experimental pipeline that manipulates and randomizes comment visibility and stance using Meta's built-in A/B testing infrastructure. In collaboration with