iSK
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- Joined
- 16 Jul 2013
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It’s possible that you were just
involved in a massive psychological
experiment — but don’t worry,
nobody else knew about it either.
According to a study recently
published in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
, data scientists for Facebook
tweaked the News Feed algorithms
for 689,003 users, manipulating the
types of posts they saw on a daily
basis. For one week in 2012, the
algorithm filtered a
disproportionately low number of
either positive or negative posts on
the users’ feeds.
The point was to see if emotions
could be transferred virtually, just as
they are transferred in face-to-face
interactions. And sure enough, the
scientists found that people who saw
fewer positive posts on their News
Feeds created fewer positive posts
themselves. Conversely, the fewer
negative posts people saw, the more
positive they became online.
“Emotional states can be transferred
to others via emotional contagion,
leading people to experience the
same emotions without their
awareness,” wrote study authors
Adam Kramer, Jamie Guillory, and
Jeffrey Hancock. “We provide
experimental evidence that emotional
contagion occurs without direct
interaction between people (exposure
to a friend expressing an emotion is
sufficient), and in the complete
absence of nonverbal cues.”
But the creepy part of the whole
thing? None of these Facebook users
were aware their News Feeds were
being manipulated. It also means
that an algorithm was perfectly
capable of messing with people’s
emotions for a whole week.
However, the study is covered under
the Facebook Data Use Policy, which
users must agree to before signing
up for the site’s service. The policy
gives the company the right to access
and use information people post to
the social media site, and according
to A.V. Club , the policy also lists a
number of potential uses for this
data, “including troubleshooting, data
analysis, testing, research and service
improvement.”
So if you felt depressed for one week
back in 2012 without knowing why,
that mystery may have just been
solved.
involved in a massive psychological
experiment — but don’t worry,
nobody else knew about it either.
According to a study recently
published in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
, data scientists for Facebook
tweaked the News Feed algorithms
for 689,003 users, manipulating the
types of posts they saw on a daily
basis. For one week in 2012, the
algorithm filtered a
disproportionately low number of
either positive or negative posts on
the users’ feeds.
The point was to see if emotions
could be transferred virtually, just as
they are transferred in face-to-face
interactions. And sure enough, the
scientists found that people who saw
fewer positive posts on their News
Feeds created fewer positive posts
themselves. Conversely, the fewer
negative posts people saw, the more
positive they became online.
“Emotional states can be transferred
to others via emotional contagion,
leading people to experience the
same emotions without their
awareness,” wrote study authors
Adam Kramer, Jamie Guillory, and
Jeffrey Hancock. “We provide
experimental evidence that emotional
contagion occurs without direct
interaction between people (exposure
to a friend expressing an emotion is
sufficient), and in the complete
absence of nonverbal cues.”
But the creepy part of the whole
thing? None of these Facebook users
were aware their News Feeds were
being manipulated. It also means
that an algorithm was perfectly
capable of messing with people’s
emotions for a whole week.
However, the study is covered under
the Facebook Data Use Policy, which
users must agree to before signing
up for the site’s service. The policy
gives the company the right to access
and use information people post to
the social media site, and according
to A.V. Club , the policy also lists a
number of potential uses for this
data, “including troubleshooting, data
analysis, testing, research and service
improvement.”
So if you felt depressed for one week
back in 2012 without knowing why,
that mystery may have just been
solved.