The New York Times Consumer Insight Group, in association with Latitude Research, recently concluded a study – The Psychology of Sharing. As a mass media company, their goal was to understand why consumers and social media users do what they do. Through conducting in-person interviews, a one-week immersion panel, and a survey of 2,500 sharers, they think they figured it out. 

In a nutshell, thanks to the advent and insurgence of social media, we each now share more content with more people more often and more quickly. It's the information age, after all. And one of the keys to the psychology is something the report calls “information management.” It seems that, by sharing:

• 85 percent “say reading other people’s responses helps them understand and process information and events” 
• 73 percent of the respondents “say they process information more deeply, thoroughly, and thoughtfully”