A new study has further exposed the effect of polarizing content on social media engagement.
The researchers sought to quantify how dunking on ones enemies can maximize this engagement.
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The team analyzed around 2.7 million posts from news media account and US congressional members.
They found that posts about political opponents were shared roughly twice as often as those about ones own party.
Notably, emotional language was far less likely to boost engagement.
Quick take:Its not surprising that dunking on opponents is a strong driver of virality.
Social media platforms are acutely aware of the effect.
More intriguingly, the study found that emotional language was weakly associated with the various Facebook reactions.
This suggests that out-group identity language is a stronger predictor of engagement than emotional words alone.
HT The Washington Post
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Story byThomas Macaulay
Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he e(show all)Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he enjoys playing chess (badly) and the guitar (even worse).
