Dr. Jamil Zaki

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.

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.

It's somebody tweeting against somebody who's an outsider and then being rewarded by people who they consider to be part of their group, right? When that happens, that person is more likely in their future tweets to turn up the volume on that outrage and on that moral outrage in particular. So there's a sort of ratchet effect, right, on the people who are sharing.

It's somebody tweeting against somebody who's an outsider and then being rewarded by people who they consider to be part of their group, right? When that happens, that person is more likely in their future tweets to turn up the volume on that outrage and on that moral outrage in particular. So there's a sort of ratchet effect, right, on the people who are sharing.

It's somebody tweeting against somebody who's an outsider and then being rewarded by people who they consider to be part of their group, right? When that happens, that person is more likely in their future tweets to turn up the volume on that outrage and on that moral outrage in particular. So there's a sort of ratchet effect, right, on the people who are sharing.

But a second question becomes, well, what about the people watching? What about the rest of us? Claire Robertson has a great paper on this where she documents that a vast majority, I mean, 90 plus percent of tweets are created by the 10% of the most active users. And this is in the political sphere.

But a second question becomes, well, what about the people watching? What about the rest of us? Claire Robertson has a great paper on this where she documents that a vast majority, I mean, 90 plus percent of tweets are created by the 10% of the most active users. And this is in the political sphere.

But a second question becomes, well, what about the people watching? What about the rest of us? Claire Robertson has a great paper on this where she documents that a vast majority, I mean, 90 plus percent of tweets are created by the 10% of the most active users. And this is in the political sphere.

And these are probably not representative, these folks, not representative of the rest of us in terms of how extreme and maybe how bitter their opinions are. And so we, when we're scrolling that Statue of Liberty's worth of information, we think that we're seeing the world. We think that we're seeing our fellow citizens. We think that we're getting a picture of what people are like.

And these are probably not representative, these folks, not representative of the rest of us in terms of how extreme and maybe how bitter their opinions are. And so we, when we're scrolling that Statue of Liberty's worth of information, we think that we're seeing the world. We think that we're seeing our fellow citizens. We think that we're getting a picture of what people are like.

And these are probably not representative, these folks, not representative of the rest of us in terms of how extreme and maybe how bitter their opinions are. And so we, when we're scrolling that Statue of Liberty's worth of information, we think that we're seeing the world. We think that we're seeing our fellow citizens. We think that we're getting a picture of what people are like.

In fact, we're pulling from the fringes. And what this leads to is a misconstrual of what the world is really like. This is, by the way, not just part of social media. It's also part of legacy media. Communication theorists talk about something called the mean world syndrome.

In fact, we're pulling from the fringes. And what this leads to is a misconstrual of what the world is really like. This is, by the way, not just part of social media. It's also part of legacy media. Communication theorists talk about something called the mean world syndrome.

In fact, we're pulling from the fringes. And what this leads to is a misconstrual of what the world is really like. This is, by the way, not just part of social media. It's also part of legacy media. Communication theorists talk about something called the mean world syndrome.

Where the more time that you spend looking at the news, for instance, the more you think violent crime is up in your area, the more you think you're in danger of violent crime, even during years when violent crime is decreasing. enough to remember when Stranger Danger was this big, massive story.

Where the more time that you spend looking at the news, for instance, the more you think violent crime is up in your area, the more you think you're in danger of violent crime, even during years when violent crime is decreasing. enough to remember when Stranger Danger was this big, massive story.

Where the more time that you spend looking at the news, for instance, the more you think violent crime is up in your area, the more you think you're in danger of violent crime, even during years when violent crime is decreasing. enough to remember when Stranger Danger was this big, massive story.