PULLMAN, WA — Businesses looking for clearer insight into how consumers truly feel about their products, campaigns or brand decisions may find more authentic reactions on decentralized social media platforms, according to new research from Washington State University.
The study, which was published in the European Journal of Marketing, found that people express stronger emotions and engage in less self-censorship on decentralized platforms than on traditional, centralized sites. Centralized platforms — such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X, formerly Twitter — are owned and operated by single corporations that control content and user data. Decentralized platforms like Mastodon, Bluesky, Odysee and Signal offer users greater anonymity and autonomy.
“In many centralized platforms, people think twice before posting because they know their activity is monitored or tied to a public identity,” said Mesut Cicek, scholarly associate professor of marketing in the Carson College of Business and corresponding author. “On decentralized platforms, users feel freer to express their true opinions, and that leads to more candid, emotionally rich reactions.”
Electronic word-of-mouth plays a critical role in how audiences respond to brands, yet people may soften or filter their reactions on platforms where their identity is more visible or tightly monitored. To examine how platform design influences online expression, the research team conducted surveys, controlled simulations and analyzed real-world social media content.
Electronic word-of-mouth plays a critical role in how audiences respond to brands, yet people may soften or filter their reactions on platforms where their identity is more visible or tightly monitored.
In an initial study, participants assigned to either a centralized or decentralized environment were asked how comfortable they felt sharing honest opinions. Those in the decentralized group reported feeling more autonomous and willing to express their genuine views.
The researchers then tested whether those perceptions would translate into actual behavior. Cicek and his co-authors built a mock social platform that allowed them to manipulate whether participants believed they were posting in a centralized or decentralized space. In this controlled setting, participants responded to identical prompts. Those who believed they were using a decentralized platform wrote comments with stronger emotional intensity and less hesitation, demonstrating how platform structure can directly shape expression.
A third study analyzed more than 26,000 comments posted by the same video creators who shared identical videos on both a centralized platform and a decentralized counterpart. The researchers found that comments on decentralized platforms were more affective, direct and expressive — even when the content and the creators were the same. This pattern suggests that the platform environment, not the message itself, influences how openly people communicate.
“We wanted to see if platform structure truly shapes expression, and it does,” Cicek said. “Even when the content is the same and the audience is similar, decentralization increases emotional expression.”
As decentralized social networks continue to grow in popularity, Cicek said companies, marketers and policymakers may increasingly rely on these environments to anticipate consumer concerns and make more informed decisions about product development and communication strategy. Additional co-authors include Serdar Yayla, assistant professor at California State University, Los Angeles; Omer Cem Kutlubay, associate professor at the University of Arkansas–Fort Smith; and Kunter Gunasti, associate professor of marketing at Washington State University.
