If there’s one thing we’ve learned from zombie movies, it’s that when the word “contagion” is associated with humans getting experimented on without their knowledge at the hands of a cold, massive corporation — things never end well.
On June 2, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published “Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks.” It made headlines last weekend, which can be succinctly described as a ‘massive scale contagion’ of fury and disgust.
In “Experimental evidence” Facebook tampered with the emotional well-being of 689,003 unknowing users to see how emotional contagion could be controlled; basically, how to spread, or avoid the spread of, its users’ feelings en masse.
Everyone except the people who worked on “Experimental evidence” agree that what Facebook did was unethical. In fact, it’s gone from toxic pit of ethical bankruptcy to unmitigated disaster in just a matter of days.
Cornell University is now distancing itself from involvement in “Experimental evidence.” Facebook appears to have been caught changing its Terms to include “research” after the work had been done. The study is now being called into question over approval-laundering by respected academics.
It’s not going to get any better when people take a look at the tool Facebook used to do its experiments — a tool so woefully wrong for the job that no one, including Facebook, will ever know what Facebook actually did to its users’ emotional health.
For all of its work thus far studying emotional contagion, Facebook has used the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC2007) tool, though “Experimental evidence” was the first time Facebook used the tool to actively interfere with its users.
More at zdnet
I like Facebook. I don’t like Zucherman and his cronies. And I agree that the whole experiment thing was unethical and illegal. However, anyone that found themselves emotionally influenced by it needs some help. It’s just like the pathetic, heart wrenching ads that the ASPCA shows on cable TV. Just keep scrolling, you don’t have to watch it.
Facebook’s controversial “emotional study”, has direct ties to research funded by the Department of Defense concerning the likelihood of civil unrest.
Hmmmm….
What’s not to like?
The DOD’s the Minerva Initiative provides “funding to universities to model the dynamics, risks and tipping points for large-scale civil unrest across the world.”
Hmmmm….
What’s not to like?
DoD wants to master how to predict, prevent, manipulate, control, and even instigate mass civil unrest. It wishes to do this by developing “operational tools” related to “social, cultural, behavioral, and political forces.”
Hmmmm….
What’s not to like?
But really DOD, if you want to learn how to create and use spontaneous hysteria, go to northern Africa, one of the Muslim countries.
Men get so riled up by rumor that they go on murderous rampages and start believing their manhood has disappeared!
And, yes.
Cell phones are part of the quick spread of this disorder.