Likewar: The Weaponization of Social Media

by P.W. Singer

A year later, an even larger and more insidious study confirmed the power of anger. Partnering with Facebook, data scientists manipulated the newsfeeds of nearly 700,000 users over the course of a week, without the knowledge of the “participants.” For some, the researchers increased the number of positive stories to which they were exposed. For others, they increased the number of negative stories. In each case, Facebook users altered their own behavior to match their new apparent reality, becoming cheerier or angrier in the process. But the effect was most pronounced among those whose newsfeeds had turned negative. The scientists dubbed this an “emotional contagion,” the spread of emotions through social networks that resembled nothing so much as the transmission of a virus.