Transcript
Inside the Facebook Emotion Study
Jeff Hancock
Why did you do this study?
Role Affect Manipulation Test IM chat Affect
Maintenance Test
Experiencer
t i p s f o r sur v i v i ng f re shman year
Partner 1
Partner 2
PAN
AS
Cir
cum
plex
Affe
ct S
cale
gyran ! angry amicel ! malice
lbnda ! bland lianalv! vanilla
Role Affect Manipulation Test IM chat Affect
Maintenance Test
Partner 1
t i p s f o r sur v i v i ng f re shman year
Partner 2
Partner 3
PAN
AS
Cir
cum
plex
Affe
ct S
cale
lbnda ! bland lianalv! vanilla
lbnda ! bland lianalv! vanilla
Emotional Contagion N
egat
ive
Affe
ct S
core
(1-
5)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
Experiencer Partners Control
Mediated Emotional Contagion
Why did Facebook do this study?
f
N=689,003
% Negative Posts Omitted
% Positive Posts Omitted
% Random Posts Omitted
% Random Posts Omitted
N=689,003
Less NegativeMore Positive
Less PositiveMore Negative
% Negative Posts Omitted
% Positive Posts Omitted
% Random Posts Omitted
% Random Posts Omitted
~1.8m words
~4m words~1.8m words
What was the impact?
What was the impact?
% Negative Posts Omitted
% Positive Posts Omitted
% Random Posts Omitted
% Random Posts Omitted
wrote 1 fewer positive emotion word per 1000
wrote 4 more negative emotion words per 10,000
How could you know, a priori, tiny effect?
How could you know, a priori, small impact?
Emotional Contagion - Lab Results
Mea
n Te
nsio
n R
atin
g
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
Experiencer Partners Control
Did you get IRB approval?
What about informed consent?
Did you get IRB approval?
Why did this study cause so much controversy?
Why no informed consent?
Reaction from Users
“My friend’s dad just passed away, and if I was in this experiment I’d never have known”
2. The Newsfeed is important
“How dare you manipulate my Newsfeed!”
1. The Newsfeed is manipulated?
3. Emotions are distinctly important
4. Big data is personal
“I want to know if I was in your experiment”
Megan French Sarah Sinclair Chris Traver Garrett Heller
Michael Luzmore Peter Shelton Dave Fol Ruth Weismann
Reaction from the Media
Reaction from the Media
0
15
30
45
60
tinker guinea pig manipulate/control
"unwitting guinea pigs"
"treating people like laboratory rats
"tweaking the newsfeed algorithm”
“tinkering with people's emotions”
manipulated users' emotions
manipulated to study their emotional reactions
% articles
Reaction from the Media
Reaction from the Media
0
0.275
0.55
0.825
1.1
1st Person Anger Anx
**
FB coverage
emotionnon-emotion
% word count
Reaction from the Academy
Reaction from the Academy
citations = 123
52.9% focus primarily on ethics
Reaction from the Academy
0
0.15
0.3
0.45
0.6
1st Person Anger Anx
* Abstract Focus
ethicsscience
% word count
- expectation violation- awareness, informed- personal
Why did this study cause so much controversy?
Which metaphor best captures your understanding of how the Facebook Newsfeed selects your content?
Jamie Guillory Adam Kramer danah boyd Jeremy Birnholtz Nicole Ellison
Tarleton Gillespie Mary Gray James Grimmelman Brian Keegan
Jon Kleinberg Cliff Lampe Cristian Sandvig Duncan Watts
Key Challenges Going Forward
informed consentresearch vs. practiceregulatory fitconsidering the individual vs. societyoutreach and training
Conversation as metaphor
peer reviewadvisory rather than adversarialin the public domain
Gift of Criticism
Gift of Criticism
attend to claimsdrives innovationreflect on our values
Inside the Facebook Emotion Study
Jeff Hancock
top related