Dr. Jamil Zaki

It's a tragedy because we're coming up with these simple black and white physics-like predictions about the world, and they're often wrong. They're often unduly negative. An opportunity because to the extent that we can tap into a more scientific or curious mindset, to the extent that we can open ourselves to the data, pleasant surprises are everywhere.

The social world is full of a lot more positive and helpful and kind people than we realize, right? The average person underestimates the average person. This is not to say that there aren't awful people who do awful things every day around the world. There, of course, are. But we take those extreme examples and over-rotate on them.

The social world is full of a lot more positive and helpful and kind people than we realize, right? The average person underestimates the average person. This is not to say that there aren't awful people who do awful things every day around the world. There, of course, are. But we take those extreme examples and over-rotate on them.

The social world is full of a lot more positive and helpful and kind people than we realize, right? The average person underestimates the average person. This is not to say that there aren't awful people who do awful things every day around the world. There, of course, are. But we take those extreme examples and over-rotate on them.

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.