Each added moral–emotional word boosts post sharing by up to 20 percent

Evidence

In one of our social media studies looking at nearly a million posts from popular media outlets on Twitter and Facebook (see chapter 6), we find that the presence of every additional moral–emotional word in a post (such as ‘murder’ or ‘hate’) increases shares and retweets by 10–17 per cent. Our colleagues at New York University, using a different data set of about half a million posts, put that number slightly higher, at 20 per cent. This is a significant bump in terms of the diffusion of online content. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 727

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Repeated exposure makes people find sharing misinformation less unethical — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 73; Online, negative emotions are easier to generate than positive ones, biasing engagement — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 397

Broader Connections

• Online, negative emotions are easier to generate than positive ones, biasing engagement #responds-to (0.72) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 397