The tones used on the social network and published posts are getting stronger and more extreme. An evolution due to the reward mechanism that underlies the functioning of Twitter e Facebook: these platforms are contributing over time to the spread of posts that express outrage and anger because users have learned that with such content they get more like e shares. In other words, a vicious circle has been created whereby we tend to write increasingly angry messages, as these are then read and rewarded. To say it is a study ofYale University, which warns of the consequences of this phenomenon. In fact, moral indignation can be a force that promotes cooperation and social change, but it also has a dark side: it can contribute to the spread of fake news and disinformation, to political polarization and to generate attacks against minorities.
To reach this conclusion, researchers from the Department of Psychology at the American University analyzed the content that manifested moral outrage spread on Twitter during controversial events that really happened. They also studied user behaviors in controlled experiments designed to test whether social media algorithms that reward popular posters encourage posting messages expressing resentment and deplore. So they found that users who get more likes and retweets when they express disdain in one of their posts will continue to do so in subsequent ones. “We have shown that some people learn to show more and more indignation over time because they are rewarded by the way social media has been developed,” explained William Brady, postdoc researcher who signed the study with Molly Crockett, associate professor of psychology. at Yale. «The incentives provided by the platform are changing the tone of our online political conversations“, he added.
Facebook and Twitter explained that they only provide a neutral platform for conversations that would otherwise take place elsewhere. Some experts had already assumed that social media tends to reinforce and amplify the indignation that travels on the internet. However, being able to demonstrate this relationship clearly is very complicated, as accurately measuring complex social expressions such as indignation is a great technical challenge. Yale experts did this with the help of a team that developed a software di machine learning able to monitor this type of reactions in Twitter posts. After analyzing 12.7 million tweets from 7,331 profiles, the authors of the study then tried to understand if the outrage expressed by users increased over time and, if so, for what reasons.
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This mechanism also has implications in political messages and discussions which are hosted by the platforms. According to the researchers, in fact, members of more extreme political networks show much more indignation in their posts than users who belong to more moderate networks. “Our studies show that people with politically moderate friends and followers are more sensitive to feedback that reinforces their expressions of indignation,” Crockett said. “This suggests a mechanism whereby moderate groups can become more radical over time. The rewards of social media create positive feedback loops that intensify the outrage ».
The research further stimulates the debate on how these platforms should be regulated. The spread of online outrage and the exasperating tones with which it is expressed is also a consequence of social media business template, which makes the most of user engagement, explain the authors. “Since moral outrage plays a crucial role in promoting political and social change, we should be aware that tech companies have the ability to influence the success or failure of collective movements with the development of their platforms,” he said. Crockett pointed out, adding that the data collected shows that social media does not just reflect what happens in society, but creates incentives that change the way users react to political events over time.
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