OREANDA-NEWS   Researchers from the United States found that social networks stimulate the expression of indignation by users. The scientists' article was published in the journal Science Advances. 

Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter say they are just a platform for discussions that could happen in the real world. Recently, however, more and more experts are coming to believe that the consequence of using social networks may be a tendency to increasingly express indignation.

Scientists from Yale University with the help of the neural network they created assessed the manifestations of user anger during events that caused a contradictory assessment in society. A total of 12.7 million posts from 7331 Twitter users were tracked. Using their algorithm, the scientists tested whether the number of angry posts increased over time, and if so, why.

Researchers have proven that social media tools do affect how users post. Those whose notes expressing outrage received more likes or retweets, tried in the future to create such posts more often. More radical users expressed their indignation more often, the researchers found, but more moderate ones were more susceptible to encouragement from social networks.

In addition, the scientists conducted two behavioral experiments under controlled conditions. 240 participants were asked to choose one of two posts - with an expression of indignation or "normal" - to publish it in their feed and gain more likes and retweets. The experiments confirmed the findings of the study: people tried to choose more "negative" posts, as they received more feedback.