In a heartening development for both consumers and businesses, researchers at Washington State University have discovered a promising solution to one of marketing's biggest challenges: getting genuine, unfiltered feedback from real people.

Published in the European Journal of Marketing, the groundbreaking study shows that decentralized social media platforms create spaces where people feel comfortable expressing their true thoughts and emotions. This authenticity could revolutionize how businesses understand and respond to consumer needs.

"On decentralized platforms, users feel freer to express their true opinions, and that leads to more candid, emotionally rich reactions," explains Mesut Cicek, scholarly associate professor of marketing at the Carson College of Business and lead author of the study. This finding opens exciting possibilities for more meaningful conversations between companies and the people they serve.

Unlike traditional platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter), which are controlled by single corporations, decentralized platforms like Mastodon, Bluesky, and Signal offer users greater privacy and autonomy. This structural difference creates an environment where people feel safe sharing honest opinions without fear of judgment or surveillance.

The research team used multiple creative approaches to confirm their findings. They surveyed participants, created controlled simulations, and analyzed more than 26,000 real-world comments. The results were consistently encouraging: when people felt they were using decentralized platforms, they shared more emotionally expressive and genuine feedback.

In one particularly fascinating experiment, researchers built a mock social platform and asked participants to respond to identical prompts. Those who believed they were on a decentralized platform wrote comments with noticeably stronger emotional intensity and less hesitation. This demonstrated that platform structure directly influences how freely people communicate.

Perhaps most compelling was the analysis of identical videos posted by the same creators on both centralized and decentralized platforms. Even with the same content and creators, comments on decentralized platforms were more direct, affective, and expressive. This confirms that the environment itself encourages openness.

"We wanted to see if platform structure truly shapes expression, and it does," Cicek shared enthusiastically. "Even when the content is the same and the audience is similar, decentralization increases emotional expression."

This research arrives at an exciting time, as decentralized social networks continue growing in popularity. The implications are wonderfully promising: companies can gain deeper insights into consumer concerns, develop better products, and create more effective communication strategies. Meanwhile, consumers benefit from having spaces where their voices are heard authentically.

The study represents a collaborative effort, with additional contributions from Serdar Yayla of California State University, Los Angeles; Omer Cem Kutlubay of the University of Arkansas–Fort Smith; and Kunter Gunasti of Washington State University.

As businesses and policymakers increasingly recognize the value of authentic consumer feedback, decentralized platforms may become essential tools for building stronger, more responsive relationships between companies and communities. This research lights the way toward a future where everyone's genuine voice matters and is heard.