Dr. Jamil Zaki

We assume that the most toxic, awful examples that we see are representative when they're not. So we miss all these opportunities, but understanding that I hope opens people to gaining more of those opportunities, to using them and to finding out more accurate and more hopeful information about each other.

We assume that the most toxic, awful examples that we see are representative when they're not. So we miss all these opportunities, but understanding that I hope opens people to gaining more of those opportunities, to using them and to finding out more accurate and more hopeful information about each other.

We assume that the most toxic, awful examples that we see are representative when they're not. So we miss all these opportunities, but understanding that I hope opens people to gaining more of those opportunities, to using them and to finding out more accurate and more hopeful information about each other.

It's a terrific question. It's hard to provide a very clear answer. And I don't want to get out over my skis with what is known and what's not known. Social media has been a tectonic shift in our lives. It has coincided with a rise in cynicism. But as you know, history is not an experiment.

It's a terrific question. It's hard to provide a very clear answer. And I don't want to get out over my skis with what is known and what's not known. Social media has been a tectonic shift in our lives. It has coincided with a rise in cynicism. But as you know, history is not an experiment.

It's a terrific question. It's hard to provide a very clear answer. And I don't want to get out over my skis with what is known and what's not known. Social media has been a tectonic shift in our lives. It has coincided with a rise in cynicism. But as you know, history is not an experiment.

So you can't take two temporal trends that are coincident with one another and say that one caused the other. That said... My own intuition and a lot of the data suggests that in at least some ways, social media is a cynicism factory, right? I mean, so let's first stipulate how much time we're spending on there. I mean, the average person goes through 300 feet of social media feed a day.

So you can't take two temporal trends that are coincident with one another and say that one caused the other. That said... My own intuition and a lot of the data suggests that in at least some ways, social media is a cynicism factory, right? I mean, so let's first stipulate how much time we're spending on there. I mean, the average person goes through 300 feet of social media feed a day.

So you can't take two temporal trends that are coincident with one another and say that one caused the other. That said... My own intuition and a lot of the data suggests that in at least some ways, social media is a cynicism factory, right? I mean, so let's first stipulate how much time we're spending on there. I mean, the average person goes through 300 feet of social media feed a day.

Is that right? Yeah. They've measured it in feet? Approximately the height of the Statue of Liberty. So we're doing one Statue of Liberty worth of scrolling a day, much of it doom scrolling, if you're anything like me, at least. And so then the question becomes, what are we seeing when we scroll for that long? Who are we seeing? And are they representative of what people are really like?

Is that right? Yeah. They've measured it in feet? Approximately the height of the Statue of Liberty. So we're doing one Statue of Liberty worth of scrolling a day, much of it doom scrolling, if you're anything like me, at least. And so then the question becomes, what are we seeing when we scroll for that long? Who are we seeing? And are they representative of what people are really like?

Is that right? Yeah. They've measured it in feet? Approximately the height of the Statue of Liberty. So we're doing one Statue of Liberty worth of scrolling a day, much of it doom scrolling, if you're anything like me, at least. And so then the question becomes, what are we seeing when we scroll for that long? Who are we seeing? And are they representative of what people are really like?

And the answer in a lot of ways is no. What we see on social media is not representative of the human population. So there's a lot of evidence. A lot of this comes from William Brady, now at Northwestern, and Molly Crockett, that When people tweet, for instance, I mean, a lot of this is done on the site formerly known as Twitter.

And the answer in a lot of ways is no. What we see on social media is not representative of the human population. So there's a lot of evidence. A lot of this comes from William Brady, now at Northwestern, and Molly Crockett, that When people tweet, for instance, I mean, a lot of this is done on the site formerly known as Twitter.

And the answer in a lot of ways is no. What we see on social media is not representative of the human population. So there's a lot of evidence. A lot of this comes from William Brady, now at Northwestern, and Molly Crockett, that When people tweet, for instance, I mean, a lot of this is done on the site formerly known as Twitter.

When people tweet in outrage and when they tweet negatively and when they tweet about, in particular, immorality, moral outrage, that algorithmically those tweets are broadcast further. They're shared more. And this does a couple of things. One, it reinforces the people who are already tweeting in that way. So William Brady has this great work using a kind of reinforcement learning model.

When people tweet in outrage and when they tweet negatively and when they tweet about, in particular, immorality, moral outrage, that algorithmically those tweets are broadcast further. They're shared more. And this does a couple of things. One, it reinforces the people who are already tweeting in that way. So William Brady has this great work using a kind of reinforcement learning model.

When people tweet in outrage and when they tweet negatively and when they tweet about, in particular, immorality, moral outrage, that algorithmically those tweets are broadcast further. They're shared more. And this does a couple of things. One, it reinforces the people who are already tweeting in that way. So William Brady has this great work using a kind of reinforcement learning model.

Reinforcement learning is where you do something, you're rewarded, and that reward makes you more likely to do that same thing again. And it turns out that... Brady found that when people tweet in outrage and then get egged on, and oftentimes I should say this is tribal in nature.

Reinforcement learning is where you do something, you're rewarded, and that reward makes you more likely to do that same thing again. And it turns out that... Brady found that when people tweet in outrage and then get egged on, and oftentimes I should say this is tribal in nature.