So, how are you feeling today?
Are you moody or depressed? Or are you happy and feeling positive?
Chances are you most likely came by these emotions honestly on your own… but then again, it could be your
Facebook page.
A few weeks ago, the Internet community had its collective digital panties all bunched up because it was revealed that as part of an experiment, Facebook researchers manipulated the content some users were shown in an attempt to gauge their emotional response. According to an article in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), some 700,000 users had their Facebook news feeds manipulated, reducing positive or negative content, and then the emotions of these individuals’ subsequent posts were examined. The study found that users that were shown more negative content were slightly more likely to produce negative posts. Users shown positive posts responded in kind with more upbeat posts. So, it was essentially an experiment about manipulating
users’ moods.
The online community was aghast because Facebook had conducted these experiments – some have even said illegally – without the permission or consent of those 700,000 users.
However, Facebook’s terms of service does indeed give the company permission to conduct this kind of research, but most people just mindlessly click “agree” when presented with such things and never read any site’s legal-ese disclaimers anyway.
I know I don’t.
Besides, it’s not like that kind of mood manipulation and emotion gauging doesn’t go on every single day.
In fact, it’s quite common for web sites to use what’s called “A/B testing”, whereby a small subset of users are given a different web experience. If you’re part of the A/B test, your screen may look different than mine, even though we’re both on the same website. Maybe the “buy now” widget is on the left instead of the right, or the font is different. Maybe you have a different picture of an attractive help desk person in the corner. Maybe there is no picture of a help
desk person.
But companies constantly do this kind of testing on web pages to see what makes users more inclined to stay longer on their web site, funnel to desired areas and, ultimately, purchase their product or service.
Nobody ever asks anyone’s permission to serve you up a different
web experience.
And the last time I checked, companies like Anheuser Busch don’t ask for my consent when they try to, er, stimulate my emotions and invoke desire for their products with a half-naked girl lying on her side showing über cleavage, holding a foaming, long-necked bottle at waist-level with the subtly phrased “How Would You Like A Busch?” in a big, bold banner at the top.
But, while companies use A/B testing to help improve your web experiences and/or their revenue, it appears that Facebook performed their little experiment just for the sake of seeing if they could alter people’s moods… which strikes me as kind of creepy.
No matter how you feel about Facebook’s research, though, you’ve got to accept there will always be media that mess with your mood and emotions (c’mon who didn’t cry when Bambi’s mom died in the Disney’s classic?), and we’ve just got to be mindful of the agenda behind some of those manipulations.
Now, who suddenly and mysteriously feels thirsty for an Anheuser
Busch product?
