Yes, awareness matters, and in fact we found that via virality, moral outrage was linked to more signatures (but when virality was controlled for, the direct effect of moral outrage became negative)

Summery of our recent SPPS paper, funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk

"At the same time though, the findings suggest that online moral outrage may sometimes fail to translate into other types of collective responses, such as petition signing, which can influence stakeholders and policymakers."

In contrast, expressions of agency, group identity, and prosociality were associated with more signatures but no more virality.

We found that expressions of outrage were uniquely associated with the number of times posts were liked and reposted (virality). Outrage was indirectly related to the number of signatures petitions received (via virality) but it was associated with fewer signatures when controlling for virality.

The effects were mediated by perceived belief similarity. Their studies indicate that national narcissists might be inclined to support a nationalist outgroup leader and their violent actions, even if the latter may ultimately pose a threat to the ingroup.