A new study at Yale University has found that the common features of social networks such as “Share” and “Likes” are involuntarily training users to act outraged online, the reason why other users are more likely to be They compromise with publications that are more extreme. Users who like and share these positions have the side effect of teaching the person who “liked” to continue publishing similar materials.
Many social networking platforms, including popular as Twitter and Facebook, have “similar” functions such as “actions” that allow users to express their positive impression of a message and / or share it with other people. When a user of social networks receives as a shared or shared, it is essentially its reward for publishing the content.
Over time, and especially among users who are part of “politically moderate” networks, these rewards train users to publish similar content. The new study at Yale University focused on the “expression of moral indignation” among Twitter users related to the real controversial events that take place in real life.
This analysis joined a study of participants in controlled experiments, ultimately, find that the “basic design of social networks”, including their algorithms, teaches some users to express more online indignation. The researchers point out that indignation can be good and bad, sometimes seeking justice for legitimate transgressions, but at other times it is used to intimidate, disseminate false news and increase polarization between political groups.
More than 12 million tweets of 7,331 Twitter users were tracked by an automatic learning model created by researchers. The study found that people who received more liked and actions for outraged tweets were more likely to increase the amount of indignation they published in the future. The controlled experiments receded these findings.
One of the potential studio customers, Molly Crockett, explained:
The amplification of moral indignation is a clear consequence of the business model of social networks, which optimizes the user’s commitment. Given that moral indignation plays a crucial role in social and political change, we must bear in mind that technology companies, through the design of their platforms, have the ability to influence the success or failure of collective movements.
