A viral video of child goats in crocheted turtlenecks is likely to be doing greater than eliciting “hearts” over TikTok.
Researchers from University of Maryland’s Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS) are analyzing how emotional responses from “aww” to “eww” affect how info—and disinformation—is shared on social media.
“There’s already research looking at things like anger and hate and how these negative emotions are associated with sharing,” stated Susannah Paletz, affiliate professor within the College of Information Studies and principal investigator. “But there are a number of positive emotions that people don’t ever measure. And the internet is made of cats—so why aren’t people studying this?”
In the latest installment of “Enterprise: University of Maryland Research Stories,” ARLIS researchers share their data-driven method to unpacking and measuring how efficient posts affect, and even manipulate, social media customers into changing into conduits of knowledge.
