What Makes Content Go Viral?
Professors at Wharton School of Business attempted to use some science and statistical analysis to gain insight into what makes online content contagious. They analyzed how often 7,000 different articles on the New York Times were shared over a 3 months. They then used statistical analysis to determine what kind of content (emotional, unemotional, positive, negative, sad, happy, humorous, etc.) was associated with the most activity.
It has always been assumed that people share content online in order to help their friends, boost their mood, or increase their reputation.
They found that positive and practically useful content tended to be more viral than negative content, which isn’t surprising. What is significant is that highly arousing content (anxiety evoking, anger evoking, etc.) is also likely to be shared.
“Such content does not clearly produce immediate economic value in the traditional sense or even necessarily reflect favorably on the self. This suggests that social transmission may be less about motivation and more about the transmitter’s internal states.”
The study is to be published in April’s issue of Journal of Marketing Research.