The Facebook Experiment

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In retrospect, Facebook’s innovation attracted a lot of attention. Social media has always had an influence on individuals and still do. It is easy for people to behave in particular ways that are inconsistent with who they really are. However, In 2014, Facebook addressed the issue of well-being in a study entitled, ‘Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks’, otherwise known as ‘The Facebook Experiment’ (Kramer, Guillory, & Hancock, 2014). As the experiment received a lot of criticism, with many referring to social media platforms as “terrifying” and “creepy”, it overshadowed the intent and purpose of the initial study. 

Facebook basically tampered with the news feed of over half a million people to determine whether the quality of posts i.e. positive or negative have an effect on the individual’s emotional state and what effect the changes had on the tone of the posts the recipients then wrote. The paper defined emotional contagion as the phenomenon of transfer of emotional states to others which causes the individual to experience the same emotions and feelings without their awareness. This idea has been established well in laboratory experiments but facebook attempted to find the evidence for the same online. Researchers found that moods were contagious as people who were exposed to more positive expressions and content online produced more positive posts and less negative posts; when positive expressions were reduced, people produced fewer positive posts and more negative posts.The results are intriguing because they also refute the notion that seeing others' good posts may cause people to judge themselves negatively by comparing themselves to their peers. Instead, the researchers found that seeing positive posts in their feed prompted people to make more positive posts themselves. 

News of the research led to outrage from people when they realized that their feeds had been secretly manipulated and ethics of the experiment were seriously questioned.The study's targeted subjects were not asked for their informed consent. The company ,in their defense, retaliated that users give consent to this kind of manipulation when they accept its terms and conditions of service. Many people argued their statement and judgment and the internet did not take the news well. There were other limitations too in the experiment. It has low internal validity. The method of analyzing the emotional impact of news feed on people via the nature of content posting of those individuals on their feed is debatable. It does not take into account the other socio behavioral factors that may occur in the individual’s environment which has a direct impact on their feelings and mood. The situational factors may overpower the manipulation of feeds and do not fit in well with the emotional contagion.

In my opinion, social media is never an entirely reliable source of assessing variables like emotions and mood. What we present on social media platforms does not necessarily align with our true feelings and sentiments. I can very well post a cheerful picture of mine irrespective of how unproductive and unfortunate my entire day went. As much thought and effort as facebook tried to put in, it lacked genuine implication. Further research can definitely find a better way and methodology for the same.


About the author

Saloni Bansal is a second-year B.sc. Applied Psychology student. She is intrigued by the idea of how, while writing down your thoughts, you become aware of and acknowledge new things. It gives her great insight and serves as a conduit for her to explore her beliefs and thoughts. That is how you can better understand and accept yourself. Other than that, humor and adventure are what keep her going.







                                             REFERENCES


Kramer, A. D. I., Guillory, J., & Hancock, J. T. (2014). Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(24), 8788–8790. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1320040111


Panger, G. (2016). Reassessing the Facebook experiment: critical thinking about the validity of Big Data research. Information, Communication & Society, 19(8), 1108–1126. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2015.1093525


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