What makes an internet video go viral?

Can psychology explain viral videos? Some internet clips like President Obama's "Yes We Can" campaign video go "viral". Audiences reach into the millions thanks to so many people choosing to forward the link to friends. According to a new study, the likelihood of someone choosing to forward a video depends on the emotion provoked by that clip.  Based on their findings Rosanna Guadagno and her colleagues describe what they call an "arousal hierarchy" - videos eliciting positive emotion, including joy and humour, are most likely to be forwarded; videos eliciting feelings of alertness and attentiveness are the next most likely to be forwarded. Clips that evoke negative arousal are near the bottom of the hierarchy, but still more likely to be forwarded than dull, non-emotional videos. The researchers made their findings by recruiting 256 students to watch one of ten videos, then asking them how they felt and whether they planned to forward it to others. In an initial study there were four emotion categories: cute (e.g. a child biting his older brother in fun), funny (e.g. a cat stalking a video camera), disgusting (e.g. a woman eating a praying mantis) and anger-inducing (e.g. police tasering a student). The clips had been hits on Youtube in 2005 to 2007. There were also two boring control videos - one about cross-stitching and the other about basket making. A second study with 163 more students was similar, but this time the researchers also altered who the videos were a...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Source Type: blogs