A new study, entitled "Reconsidering Tweets: Intervening During Tweet Creation Decreases Offensive Content," summarizes Twitter researchers' findings that, when asked whether they want to reconsider posting a potentially hurtful or offensive tweet, about 31% of users either cancelled or revised their message before publishing it.
That's not an overwhelming number, but it's something: 9% of that 31% re-thought something they were intending to do and opted to cancel their tweet, and 22% revised their message before sending it, all because Twitter asked them—right before they hit the publish button—if they wanted to reconsider putting such a message into the world.
These researchers also found that this re-thinking effect lasted for a while after receiving the prompt: folks who were shown this message once demonstrated fewer "repeat offenses" (writing mean-spirited or abusive tweets) than those who were not shown the message.
In other words, simply being asked if they really wanted to do something they thought they wanted to do seems to have changed users' behaviors at least a little. New offenses dropped by a fifth in the prompt-exposure group.
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