In an era where social media increasingly serves as a primary news source, a study from Trinity Business School in Ireland and NEOMA Business School in France warns that users can develop entrenched opinions after viewing just a handful of posts—and that those opinions are largely immune to factual correction.
Published in May, the research involved experiments with US-based participants who were shown Instagram-style posts on unfamiliar news topics. The findings indicate that after three to five consistent posts, individuals formed initial opinions that stabilized quickly, with additional information having minimal impact.
The Power of Perceived Expertise
Professor Ashish Kumar Jha of Trinity Business School told Euronews' fact-checking team that the most trusted source on social media is a “celebrity expert”—someone who combines fame with a professional title, such as a White House advisor who is also a doctor. Celebrities and individuals with titles like “Dr.” in their biographies followed closely.
“The thing is, anyone can have any title on Instagram, can call themselves a professor or doctor,” Kumar Jha noted. He pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as a stark example: “By March 2020, you had millions of people who were self-professed experts and fighting for their positions that we think vaccination is good or we think the vaccination is bad. So how does it happen? How do people become experts overnight?”
The study found that early opinions rely on mental shortcuts such as familiarity and coherence rather than factual accuracy. Once formed, these views persist over time; participants often retained their original stance even after several days. Moreover, people were more likely to engage with information that matched their initial views, while contradictory content was less likely to be believed or shared.
Kumar Jha warned that the threshold for believing oneself an expert is “very low,” leading to a cycle of misinformation and disinformation. “Once you start believing you are an expert and thinking like that, you believe every other piece of information that is fact-checking or questioning your beliefs as an attack on your personality,” he said. “Your own beliefs get stronger and stronger, not weaker.”
The findings come as the 2026 Reuters Digital News Report revealed that social media and video networks have become the single most widely used way to access online news worldwide—a trend that had previously been limited to individual countries. This shift has significant implications for Europe, where debates over social media regulation and legal challenges against tech giants are intensifying.
As platforms like Instagram and TikTok continue to shape public discourse, the study underscores the ease with which misinformation can take root. For European policymakers grappling with digital sovereignty and media literacy, the research offers a sobering reminder: in the fast-paced world of social media, first impressions are not only lasting but also dangerously resistant to correction.
