
Anger spreads faster than joy on social networks - Shenglong
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/519306/most-influential-emotions-on-social-networks-revealed
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pg
I've noticed this on HN too. When otherwise lightweight stories get a lot of
upvotes, the most common cause (probably more than 90% of the time) is that
they're something users are indignant about. The more clickbaitish news sites
know about this phenomenon and deliberately milk it.

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jessedhillon
Isn't this also true in real life causes? E.g., I see many more political
campaigns gain traction when they invoke the language of impending doom,
illustrate a threat to a way of life, and call attention to something
outrageous. I can hardly think of any successful cause that was carried on
what I would consider positive messaging.

It seems to me that the promise of some great outcome seems either/both
unbelievable and easy to defer action toward. But negative outcomes are
immediate and demand action now. Negatively-charged stories seem to press all
the same buttons -- "can you believe this!?", "this must stop!", "they're at
it again!"

~~~
dnautics
the political campaigns that get a _surprising_ amount of traction - as in
relative to what you would expect from the political machine, however, tend to
point out criticism (which could be construed as "negative") in the context of
a greater positivity/aspiration (I'm thinking in 2008 Barack Obama, Ron Paul),
so it gets tricky to label things in such black and white negative/positive
contexts.

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j_baker
This shouldn't be surprising, psychologists have known this for a couple of
decades. See mood contagion:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_contagion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_contagion)

Anger, being a highly negative, high energy-level emotion, is _very_
contagious.

 _People respond differentially to positive and negative stimuli, and negative
events tend to elicit stronger and quicker emotional, behavioral, and
cognitive responses than neutral or positive events. Thus, unpleasant emotions
are more likely to lead to mood contagion than are pleasant emotions. Another
variable that needs to be taken into account is the energy level at which the
emotion is displayed. As higher energy draws more attention to it, the
prediction is that the same emotional valence (pleasant or unpleasant)
expressed with high energy will lead to more contagion than if expressed with
low energy._

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kevincrane
This is relatively unsurprising to me, but it's cool to see a study done about
it. Think about how quickly faux outrage will spread throughout Twitter or
Facebook. How many people do you know posted articles expressing their
"disgust" at Miley Cyrus during the VMAs (anger)? Now how many people posted
anything congratulatory about their favorite bands that won awards at that
same show (happiness)?

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tokenadult
The study was conducted on microblog networks in China. The people who use the
networks have plenty to be angry about, and few other channels for expressing
dissent.

The fine article submitted here correctly notes that this is not a finding
about the West, and so the first thing to do to find out how general this
phenomenon is is to study the West directly. "Of course, it would be
interesting to see whether the same effect can be observed in western networks
such as Twitter. That should be relatively straightforward to find out given
the growing interest in sentiment analysis and the increasingly effective
tools available to carry it out." So, yes, let's see what we find out when
other social networks are put to the same test. And let's see what is found in
China someday when China has a free press and an open political system.

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UnfalseDesign
"Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of
bad news, which obeys its own special laws." \-- Douglas Adams, "The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

Switch out "bad news" with "angry news."

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pessimizer
Why would you spread messages of sadness and disgust? I can also see why you
would spread messages of joy to friends and family. I can see why you would
spread messages of anger to everyone - because you're informing people of
situations that you hope to correct.

Tweet SAD: "My rotten car broke down for the last time today. I guess it's the
bus for me #YOLO"

Tweet DISGUST: "When I was in line at Starbucks yesterday, the guy behind me
puked on my shirt. Ugh. #YOLO"

Tweet JOY: "Looking at the sunset on a Thai beach with the one I love.
Thailand has changed me forever. #YOLO"

Tweet ANGER: "Our wonderful police force have gunned down a black man looking
for help after crawling out of a car wreck! #YOLO"

Only one I'd consider retweeting is the last.

~~~
dredmorbius
Outrage cues a defense reaction. It's an alarm signal.

If you're a hits-motivated advertising site, they guarantee traffic. That's
the abuse angle.

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JonSkeptic
>Anger spreads faster than joy on social networks.

News like this really pisses me off.

