Facebook secretly manipulated moods of 700,000 users in huge creepy psychology experiment.

Hundreds of thousands of Facebook users were stunned to learn the social network had been manipulating their emotional state without their knowledge as part of a massive secret psychological experiment.

Scientists working for the social network made users into lab rats for a week in January 2012, to see if meddling with the posts they saw when they logged in would change their emotions.

The study found that by messing with the news feeds of 689,003 users, researchers could change the kind of status updates they'd make.

The paper says the automated testing: "“was consistent with Facebook’s Data Use Policy, to which all users agree prior to creating an account on Facebook, constituting informed consent for this research.”

Facebook secretly manipulated moods of 700,000 users in huge creepy psychology experiment.

If they were shown more negative posts from friends, the users would make more negative status posts, and the other way around.

The research paper, released in the PNAS journal this week, reads: "emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness."

It's not a huge change - just one-tenth of a percent difference - but that could mean hundreds of thousands of status updates a day.

Facebook's terms and conditions, which all users agree to, allow them to carry out research of this kind without telling users they're being experimented on.

The paper says the automated testing: "“was consistent with Facebook’s Data Use Policy, to which all users agree prior to creating an account on Facebook, constituting informed consent for this research.”

The researchers say they weren't able to see individual users posts at any time, and the positive and negative posts were selected automatically.

In a statement, the social network defended the research.

"This research was conducted for a single week in 2012 and none of the data used was associated with a specific person's Facebook account," they said.

"We do research to improve our services and to make the content people see on Facebook as relevant and engaging as possible. A big part of this is understanding how people respond to different types of content, whether it's positive or negative in tone, news from friends, or information from pages they follow. We carefully consider what research we do and have a strong internal review process."

This is very disturbing, it makes you ask yourself what other mass experiments are taking place both on facebook and everywhere else such as with TV or music or news etc..

a reply to: DEV1L79

Facebook's terms and conditions, which all users agree to, allow them to carry out research of this kind without telling users they're being experimented on.

They don't agree to it. They have been deceived.

But now that they know I wonder how many actually quit Facebook behind it?

The frog pond temperature is climbing.

You mean like what kind of behavior a cable news network can influence in people by tailoring the types of stories they chose to broadcast?

What I would find interesting is if they went and told those people 700,000 people that this was happening and see what kind of status updates came out of that.

This involuntary experiment and it's ethics may be questionable, but I'd say the outcome was pretty valuable to people that can use this kind of information to their advantage.

originally posted by: DEV1L79
it makes you ask yourself what other mass experiments are taking place both on facebook and everywhere else such as with TV or music or news etc..

Precisely. I believe that people more readily accept the idea of television/radio being used for propaganda, because we know for a fact that they have been used that way for decades by many governments, past and present. But there seems to be a form of cognitive dissonance which develops when we reflect upon our most beloved mode of communication (Internet/Web).

From the article:

A big part of this is understanding how people respond to different types of content, whether it's positive or negative in tone, news from friends, or information from pages they follow.

www.mirror.co.uk...

Imagine: Targeted propaganda with statistical analysis to back up the claims of why people will react in certain ways to certain kinds of information. Usually, we just shower leaflets over an enemy and hope that enough people read them.

Not anymore.

a reply to: DEV1L79
S&F'd & thanks for the report..
i just assume stuff like this is going on everywhere
it's safer

..now who wants to water my crops on farmville!?

what markus was just saying..

How Washington and its Allies Use Social Media to Topple ... www.scgnews.com/ how-washington-and-its-allies-use-social-media-to-topple-governments- manipulate-public-opinion - View by Ixquick Proxy - Highlight 10 Apr 2014 ... The U.S. government's latest attempt to topple Cuba using social ... Use Social Media to Topple Governments & Manipulate Public Opinion. 10. How Washington Uses Social Media to Topple Governments and ... www.globalresearch.ca/ how-washington-uses-social-media-to-topple-governments-and-manipulate -public-opinion/ 5381683 - View by Ixquick Proxy - Highlight 11 May 2014 ... The U.S. government's latest attempt to topple Cuba using social media is .... example of social media being used to manipulate public opinion. 'US efficient at using social media to further its foreign policy ... www.rt.com/op-edge/cuban-twitter-us-surveillance-121/ - View by Ixquick Proxy - Highlight 8 Apr 2014 ... The US doesn't realize that its Cold War with Cuba ended 20 years ago, and is using social media to manipulate its people and achieve ...

These people who use Facebook religiously deserve to be used as lab rats.. They are the perfect candidates.

Your entire life has been made for leading and observation. One big, unwitting, focus group. Only difference is Facebook has made it obvious their intentions.

originally posted by: DEV1L79

...it makes you ask yourself what other mass experiments are taking place both on facebook and everywhere else such as with TV or music or news etc..

No it doesn't. It makes me hope people will wake the bloody hell up and realize they are being manipulated constantly in this way - when they listen to music, watch TV, read magazines, newspapers and books, go to church - and yes, surf the net. Forget 'experiments' - the Big Boyz are into full-out social/political engineering.

This is NOT news:

The research paper, released in the PNAS journal this week, reads: "emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness."

NOTE: This study's conclusions were reported to the public - unlike the hundreds of thousands of "market research" studies conducted for the past century, which were/are designed with the sole purpose of manipulating 'consumers.' Do a search on "social engineering" better yet, subscribe to a social engineering journal if you want some real news.

As a non-facebook user, what is a status update? As you can tell I'm not a creature of social networking.

a reply to: DEV1L79

Facebook is CIA owned and operated, how else are they going to initiate OCCUPY this and OCCUPY that riots? Same as AL-CIA-DA (AL-QAEDA)

Facebook tracks users and the sites they visit even AFTER they have LOGGED OUT of Facebook.

SWIPE technology records the user's fingerprints, and they can be planted anywhere, at any crime!!

Big Brother (US military industrial complex) is everywhere spying on us through every device we use in our daily lives. And if you're awake to begin with, you don't even bother wondering what subliminal messages are being absorbed by your subconscious mind because you automatically know that everything that is broadcast on tv is designed to affect you emotionally anyway, usually the FEAR emotion. With programs like DOOMSDAY PREPPERS, Mega-Disasters, Mega-Tsunamis, After Life on Earth has gone, etc

Obviously the whole '2012' Fear campaign didn't have the desired effect by lamestream media!!

a reply to: DEV1L79

Why am I not surprised by this? I cringe anytime I know of someone posting personal details on a monster social networking site like face book. How lost can a human get?

I know of whole families that only know how to communicate with one another on facebook. WTH.

Facebook....the quintessential stock yard.

originally posted by: intrptr
They don't agree to it. They have been deceived.

But now that they know I wonder how many actually quit Facebook behind it?

This guy claims facebook is lying about their feature that analyzes movies or songs in the background by turning your microphone on, claiming that the information doesn't leave your phone. However, he says it's impossible for the phone to store the entire database of all songs and music to do the analysis locally, so it must be sending data to facebook, which is why he is positive they're lying.

He has something like 10,000 followers (I think) on facebook, but he's had enough of their shenanigans and explains why:

Delete your facebook



I don't have a facebook account to delete, but if I did, I'd probably delete it, but oh wait, you can't delete it, right? Don't they keep all your data even after you stop using it?

Anyway I thought this video was relevant because it describes a number of other things about facebook that seem "creepy" and deceptive.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Stealin my stars and flags, tisk tisk

originally posted by: Arbitrageur

originally posted by: intrptr
They don't agree to it. They have been deceived.

But now that they know I wonder how many actually quit Facebook behind it?

This guy claims facebook is lying about their feature that analyzes movies or songs in the background by turning your microphone on, claiming that the information doesn't leave your phone. However, he says it's impossible for the phone to store the entire database of all songs and music to do the analysis locally, so it must be sending data to facebook, which is why he is positive they're lying.

He has something like 10,000 followers (I think) on facebook, but he's had enough of their shenanigans and explains why:

Delete your facebook

I don't have a facebook account to delete, but if I did, I'd probably delete it, but oh wait, you can't delete it, right? Don't they keep all your data even after you stop using it?

Anyway I thought this video was relevant because it describes a number of other things about facebook that seem "creepy" and deceptive.

Thanks for posting that video im going to share it with everyone i knows that still uses it! which is pretty much everyone i know.. Im so glad that i don't, i have had someone create a fake FB with my name and picture and to get it removed i have to send them a copy of my photo ID! Wtf? I dont want them storing that with my personal details on it thats not cool!

originally posted by: Witness2008
a reply to: DEV1L79

Why am I not surprised by this? I cringe anytime I know of someone posting personal details on a monster social networking site like face book. How lost can a human get?

I know of whole families that only know how to communicate with one another on facebook. WTH.

Facebook....the quintessential stock yard.

How lost, watch family members text each other via their smart phones at social gatherings (Mothers Day); no words spoken at all. I wonder for a moment if/when a huge magnetic pulse takes out all of the electrical grids including the circuitry in cars. I how this would cripple the 25 year old. I am not a Facebook person because I never trusted the premise; and knew its creators could eventually be bought off by the NSA/CIA because guess what; this is the information age and INFORMATION IS KING (since 1991) and is worth billions of dollars. Delete your Facebook page today? sure, but not the information you AND YOUR hundreds of FRIENDS have through very personal shared moments, communications for the last 9 years put on your page, and it was stored elsewhere/collected as you typed it (totally insidious) but predictable. Facebook got a huge black eye when Ed Snowden disclosed its involvement/agreement with the NSA.

a reply to DEV1L79: I find this disturbing as well-It isn't like they are covering any new ground here with respect to behavior- and behavior modification- The snoops and spooks know full well that negative posts would more than likely breed more of the same. The herd- mentality- in this case herd-mood mentality.
Now I can see how they might be licking their chops ... as far as getting the mood of the many on a downward spiral- then keep it that way for a goodly amount of time- heck! you might see a good portion of those people getting depressed enough to seek those automatic scripts - shrinks are only too happy to write for people who are finding comfort in psychotropics these days...
That is going from disturbing to devious...and I couldn't imagine them trying to work a thing like this out unless they were trying to turn mood into cash - and get more people trained to get themselves some happy pills. I think that is one of the many goals they have for us- I'm just sayin'... You notice they didn't try the "happy-mood" option. I have a feeling there are a lot of people out there just teetering... on the verge of acquiring depression- so... how much of a nudge would it take to make it stick?

They don't agree to it. They have been deceived.

Pretty sure you'll see in Facebook's terms and conditions that you can shove your complaints over this little experiment, you agreed (did you even read it) and use the site by your own choice.

Closing my Facebook account was the best thing I did. talking to people and asking them how things are going is decent human nature, postings pics of yourself in a self obsessed and vein attempt at being popular is pretty pathetic.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

I don't have a Facebook account to delete…

Me neither. But I'm an old person. I don't even have a cell phone.

Anyway I thought this video was relevant because it describes a number of other things about Facebook that seem "creepy" and deceptive.

Thanks for the enlightenment. My guess is these little tricks that can play with your privacy are cross board. If you want to remain any nom ous, don't participate online, on job, on bank, on TV, or on car at all. Thats impossible. And would draw way more attention to yourself.

He or she doesn't "go along". Whats wrong with them?

a reply to: Agit8dChop

postings pics of yourself in a self obsessed and vein attempt at being popular is pretty pathetic.

Yes it is.

Although i don't have an account someone close to me does and they're interest is mostly vain self aggrandizement.
On some level everyone wants to be loved, be popular, to belong. The people that update their accounts to my friends page go on and on about some trip they took, an illness, or recipe to cook vanity food.

I can't imagine anything more boring…

Oooh, vacation slideshows… your cancer is progressing… and wow, you changed that old recipe one_more_time_.

Bearing in mind these people are total strangers we have never met. How can we have a "relationship" with total strangers?

a reply to: intrptr
I think you might have missed the point, which is that other sites DO have more respect for your privacy than facebook. The others aren't perfect mind you, just better.

The problem the man in the video has with facebook is dishonesty and poor regard for the users.
You can set your privacy settings on facebook, and then go in 6 months later and find out they reset your privacy settings when they made a change to the site, for example. Other sites don't have as much of a reputation for doing that as much as facebook does.

Other social media sites don't talk about how stupid the users are, that I have seen, check this out:

Facebook CEO Admits To Calling Users 'Dumb (CENSORED)'

Mark Zuckerberg admits in a New Yorker profile that he mocked early Facebook users for trusting him with their personal information. A youthful indiscretion, the Facebook founder says he's much more mature now, at the ripe age of 26.

The thing is, he still seems to have the same attitude, now he just doesn't wear it on his sleeve. If the CEO of the service thinks the users of the service are idiots, one has to wonder if the CEO could be right, especially after he's said as much and admitted it.