What does the Facebook experiment teach us?

[Commentary] I’m intrigued by the reaction that has unfolded around the Facebook “emotion contagion” study.

As others have pointed out, the practice of A/B testing content is quite common. And Facebook has a long history of experimenting on how it can influence people’s attitudes and practices, even in the realm of research.

But why is it that this study has sparked a firestorm?

Facebook is not alone in algorithmically predicting what content you wish to see. An entire industry has emerged to produce crappy click bait content to manipulate emotions under the banner of “news.” Somehow, shrugging our shoulders and saying that we promoted content because it was popular is acceptable because those actors don’t voice that their intention is to manipulate your emotions so that you keep viewing their reporting and advertisements. And it’s also acceptable to manipulate people for advertising because that’s just business.

But when researchers admit that they’re trying to learn if they can manipulate people’s emotions, they’re shunned. What this suggests is that the practice is acceptable, but admitting the intention and being transparent about the process is not.

[boyd is Researcher, Harvard Berkman Center]