What Emotion Goes Viral the Fastest? (2014)

I dislike when news try to talk about research but do not cite the source. The actual paper can be read here: https://faculty.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/11...

Reminds me of this from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

> Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws. The Hingefreel people of Arkintoofle Minor did try to build spaceships that were powered by bad news but they didn't work particularly well and were so extremely unwelcome whenever they arrived anywhere that there wasn't really any point in being there.

> The one emotion that outpaced anger in Berger’s study was awe, the feelings of wonder and excitement that come from encountering great beauty or knowledge, such as a news report of an important discovery in the fight against cancer.

I find this incredibly encouraging. I try to be mindful of what feelings I spread on social media. I've seen too many friends fall into the "perpetual rage" trap, where they grow addicted to news that makes them angry and keep seeking out angrier and angrier pundits and ultimately fall into obstinate-pouting and irrationality.

The sense of awe and wonder are what I try to spread the most of online, but it's difficult. Spreading outrage is easy. It doesn't take much thought and the memes fit into headlines. Awe and wonder require research and understanding. What's amazing about a scientific discovery doesn't fit into a headline. You have to read the whole story to get what's epic in the article.

If the cure for outrage is awe, then we have to figure out how to squeeze awe into 140 characters.

Outrage, obviously.

http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage/

The same emotion you need to be most wary too. It's easy to get sucked into these Rage inducing news and waste precious time and energy over things that possibly have no relation to you and only make you feel worse. In words of pg, Life is too short to spend on such bullshit.

I'd highly recommend Jon Ronson's book "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" for more on this sort of thing. He discusses online lynch mobs and speaks to some of those at the receiving end of the internet's outrage.

Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc

Unless I missed it, they didn't answer their own question, and instead just listed a few emotions that get people riled up the most.

Surprised it wasn't fear. Maybe because mass hysteria events based on fear are rare?

I think indignation is a more precise term for the phenomenon.

I thought it was gonna be either the "aww!" of cute kitten videos or the moral outrage of look-what-Donald-Trump-is-doing-to-oppress-women-this-week.

Turns out I wasn't far off.

Five minutes​ of hate - Orwell

TLDR: Anger. In a surprise twist, also Awe.

#stopclickbait