Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman, “Social Transmission, Emotion, and the Virality of Online Content”, Marketing Science Institute Working Paper Series 2010 Report No. 10-114.
Abstract: “(…) In this report, Jonah Berger and Katherine Milkman take a psychological approach to understanding diffusion. Using a unique dataset of all the New York Times articles published over a three-month period, they examine the link between integral affect (i.e., the emotion evoked) and whether content is highly shared. Specifically, they examine how content valence (i.e., whether an article is more positive or negative) as well as the specific emotions it evokes (anxiety, anger, awe, disgust, sadness) relate to whether content is highly shared. Their data include information about the content of each Times article published online over a three-month period, and whether it made the newspaper’s “most emailed” list.” Read more