
Getting paid not to use Facebook - SMAAART
https://imgur.com/a/AJXKetl
======
JoshMcguigan
I could see this data being used by Facebook to argue that they are providing
$n per week of value to each user, based on that being the price users demand
in exchange for not using Facebook.

Of course loss aversion being what it is, humans will ask for more money in
exchange for losing access to something than they ever would have paid to gain
access to that thing.

~~~
andykx
Is it just me or does it really boil down to the simple fact that the vast
majority of people are likely to choose the largest amount of money? If I
thought I was going to get paid for doing practically anything, even if it was
a small chance, and I was presented with similar options, of course I would
choose the largest amount. This is especially true of doing something as easy
as not using Facebook.

As an aside, I haven’t used Facebook in years and I haven’t used any other
mainstream social sites in months. I don’t really miss them. I wish I could
ditch LinkedIn, but it’s proven to be a valuable job search tool more than
once and frankly, the recruiter messages keep my mood up to some degree.

~~~
Joeri
Offering options anchors the range. Most people will choose the middle of the
range, because choosing the low end makes you look foolish, and choosing the
high end makes you look greedy. The choice they make has very little to do
with the actual value they would accept, more with how they think they will be
perceived. The correct way to do it is to just offer an input field, not a
multiple choice, because then there is no anchoring.

------
crakhamster01
[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-
elections/facebo...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-
elections/facebook-partners-with-external-researchers-to-study-its-impact-
during-u-s-election-idUSKBN25R301)

> Facebook Inc said on Monday it is partnering with external researchers to
> examine the impact of the social media site on society during the 2020 U.S.
> presidential election.

The initiative expands on its Social Science One project with academics who
study political impacts of social media.

A group of 17 independent researchers from the fields of elections, democracy
and social media will now work with internal Facebook data scientists to
design the studies.

The company expects between 200,000 and 400,000 users to opt into the project,
which will log what they see and how they behave on Facebook and Instagram.

~~~
waihtis
> The company expects between 200,000 and 400,000 users to opt into the
> project, which will log what they see and how they behave on Facebook and
> Instagram.

> It will introduce targeted changes to some participants’ experiences, such
> as advertising or types of posts shown to them.

This doesn't seem to match the image posted here.

~~~
crakhamster01
Thanks for the call out. That Reuters article was referencing the broader
project that the opt-in survey is a part of.

More details about the specific researchers and their motivations can be seen
in the FAQ of the official post:

[https://about.fb.com/news/2020/08/research-impact-of-
faceboo...](https://about.fb.com/news/2020/08/research-impact-of-facebook-and-
instagram-on-us-election/)

------
msftie
What an interesting idea. It's like an anti-advertisement. I can easily
imagine how this could be replicated as a political campaign (and this does
appear to be political -- why else end after Nov 3 election?).

I wonder how the economics (or outcomes) work out paying targeted, undecided,
persuadable, but likely voters in key states to withdraw from the advertising
blitz of the opponent, as opposed to continuing to compete for ads.

~~~
crystalmeph
> Facebook says it will select scientific samples of Americans to participate
> in the study that will reflect the diversity of the nation’s adult
> population as well as Facebook and Instagram’s users. [0]

The timing on this seems really suspect. Will they release any sort of
information on the breakdown of people that were offered / accepted a spot in
this study, particularly their political leanings?

It’s pretty well accepted that the workforce in Silicon Valley leans a
particular way politically. The suspicion will be that Facebook is encouraging
those who lean the other way to mute themselves.

[0] [https://nypost.com/2020/09/04/facebook-users-will-be-paid-
to...](https://nypost.com/2020/09/04/facebook-users-will-be-paid-to-ditch-
their-accounts-for-election-study/)

~~~
TylerE
The group running this is extremely reputable.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORC_at_the_University_of_Chic...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORC_at_the_University_of_Chicago)

~~~
henriquez
Why not just wait two months though? The timing makes it impossible to not be
suspicious, after all “this is the most important election in the history of
our nation.”

~~~
TylerE
Because clearly the point of the study is to look for some sort of correlation
between social media engagement and voting activity.

The timing is a feature, not a bug.

------
kennywinker
Now I'm doing the thought experiment "how much would they have to pay me to
get back ON facebook"

------
ineedasername
There are any number of things I'd be very happy to be paid for not using.
Even very small sums of money for each one would make me a very rich man. I
would fully support over-funded startups deciding to burn their money more
directly by simply giving it to me.

------
abathur
TBH I feel like I already get paid--temporally and emotionally--for staying
away.

I suspect this would be a little like the cobra bounty?

~~~
aaron695
The cobra bounty might be a small tool to have in your head, but you cant just
bring it out an bang away.

I'm not even sure it's a useful tool. All over the world today people get
rewarded for pest bounties, they work.

I would like to know if cobra deaths went up or down due the cobra bounty.
People take to much glee in things failing, I'm not sure the story is
trustworthy.

------
ab3rC1te
I closed my Facebook account in 2009 and stopped using all social media
accounts since then. So I couldn't be eligible for being paid to deactivate an
account that doesn't exist, but I wouldn't want to be paid to have account
period. Countless hours of peoples life are wasted scrolling through feeds
that amount to a pile of dirt sitting in your yard.

~~~
tourist2d
Yet here you are, on social media.

~~~
irrational
This isn’t social media. Nor is Reddit or other similar sites. The main
criteria is “social”. That means human relationships, friendships, family,
etc. I don’t have any sort of relationship with anyone on HN, Reddit, etc. We
are all strangers passing in the night. Basically anti-social media.

~~~
dcow
But it’s not really. What we’re doing here is by definition social. It’s just
a different flavor of social. It’s surprising to me that you think talking to
other people on the internet is somehow anti-social.

~~~
chrisco255
It's not anti-social, but it is anti-"social media". HN has made a lot of
wonderful design choices that prevent it from becoming Reddit or Twitter.
Hiding points on comments, not showing indicators for replies (making it
easier to move on), solid moderation that allows for diverse viewpoints while
avoiding a lot of toxicity, etc.

------
emit_time
I still have a facebook but I rarely check it now. The only reason I use it
usually is for facebook messenger (I use the app, without checking facebook),
and I find facebook marketplace to often have a decent selection of goods,
seemingly better than craigslist now for some items.

Note however, I'm pretty young, just turned 24.

------
coeneedell
I wonder what the study is. I'm currently a grad student at UChicago, and
although I work in a computational psychology lab, I have a few friends at
NORC, and they're masters of side loading survey questions like this. I can
guess this though: the amount you're willing to get paid is most certainly not
the response variable. Even though they say "this won't effect your payment"
I'm guessing what they're going to do is offer you some random amount of
money, and then compare your response to this data.

I'll have to keep an eye on NORC's website c. October.

~~~
SenorTibbs
Just as an aside - what kind of data do you look at for computational
psychology?

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tempodox
Ironically, if you submit the form the data gets sent to Facebook, among
others.

------
wdr1
FWIW, the study is being conducted by the NORC at the University of Chicago, a
fairly well respected body.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORC_at_the_University_of_Chic...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORC_at_the_University_of_Chicago)

------
sriku
If they genuinely ran this experiment without a time bound, I'd easily have at
least $3k by now.

------
mkoryak
Could this be targeted towards influencers who someone wants to shut up?

~~~
mdoms
How many influencers can be convinced to give up a huge chunk of their income
in exchange for $150?

~~~
burfog
Not every influencer is making income that way.

Facebook is surely able to identify people with significant influence who
aren't all that famous and who don't make any money off of it. Approximately,
take the top 2% but excluding the top 0.01% to get these users.

Together they have huge influence, but mostly they aren't well-known. Their
absence would have a huge impact but might not be noticed by an outside
observer.

~~~
mdoms
If you're "not all that famous" then by definition you're not an influencer.

~~~
burfog
You can be, to a degree. There is a long tail.

Targeting the top influencers would be too obvious. There are a lot of minor
influencers that add up to quite a lot, being in total very important.
Facebook knows who they are.

------
1vuio0pswjnm7
If Purdue Pharma said it was "partnering with external researchers to examine
the impact of opiods on society" would you take the "research" seriously?

------
egfx
I believe this to be part of a move toward Facebook becoming a subscription
service. Something they should have been from the very beginning.

------
spcebar
I too received this message, but I didn't join the study. I'm concerned with
how the results of the study will be used.

~~~
takeda
As I understand the study is measuring whether you can or cannot last 6 weeks
without Facebook, or am I missing something?

I known some people that I'm curious if they could survive that.

~~~
garraeth
The second image refers to the election several times so it makes me wonder if
they are trying to see if FB has an effect on how you vote...pure speculation
on my part based on their text, of course.

~~~
SahAssar
That would require them to record your vote which would probably be illegal.

~~~
ineedasername
They can ask you how you voted. Exit polls do it all of the time. This
announcement mentions a survey as well.

~~~
SahAssar
If it is part of a survey that you are paid for then it's a pretty thin line
to paying for actual votes, right?

~~~
ineedasername
No, it's not saying you should or shouldn't vote. It's saying that after
election day, they will ask you to fill a survey, which is optional. That is
literally all the invite is saying. In fact, choosing not to vote would be a
valid & extremely valuable bit of information.

------
husamia
How to sign up?

~~~
takeda
From the image looks like the URL is
[https://2020erp.norc.org/](https://2020erp.norc.org/) but you need a PIN to
proceed, so looks like it is invite-only.

~~~
loosescrews
Interestingly enough, Facebook itself is listed as a partner.

------
irrational
How do I actually sign up? I created an account (with fake information) years
ago for something that requires a Facebook account. It has been 5-10 years
since I last visited it. I assume it is still active. I’d happily continue not
using it for money.

~~~
goodside
You can’t sign up. They don’t have enough money to pay every willing
volunteer, so they ask for volunteers only from a randomized sample to infer
what would happen if everyone received this offer.

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madprops
Addiction test? Checking to see what users most miss after a while?

~~~
runawaybottle
Emotional health test obvi.

------
rossdavidh
I am reminded of the Marx Brothers joke about getting paid more to not play
music than to play. "How much to also have you not practice?" "You can't
afford it."

------
waihtis
Anyone else think this is going to be grade-A fodder for the Trump machinery?

\- Facebook has largely been the go-to social media platform for his supporter
base

\- They are _paying_ users to deactivate their facebook accounts for the
election period AND

\- It is not disclosed at all who they are targeting & results won't be
available way until mid next year

