Researchers at Virginia Tech investigated why social media feeds tend to show exciting, unusual events rather than everyday life. Their study, published in MIS Quarterly, introduces the concept of "rareness bias diffusion." They found that when people see rare or unique content often, they begin to overestimate how common it is and then try to share similar content themselves. This process makes unusual posts spread more widely.
The team ran six experiments to study sharing choices and reactions to rare content. In one set of tests, participants read fictional scenarios about a dystopian city attacked by monsters; some scenarios appeared more often than others. Participants became more likely to share the scenario they had seen least. The researchers also built a simulated mock network of thousands of social media users and unique content to study how these effects scale.
The study concludes that the distortion is not driven only by algorithms but also by human biases and platform dynamics. The researchers suggest users should recognise that feeds reflect what people choose to share.
Difficult words
- investigate — to examine or study something carefullyinvestigated
- rareness bias diffusion — process where rare events seem more common and spread
- overestimate — to think something is larger or more common
- unusual — not normal or different from everyday things
- participant — a person who takes part in a studyparticipants
- simulate — to create a model of a real situationsimulated
- algorithm — a set of rules a computer followsalgorithms
- distortion — a change that makes information less accurate
Tip: hover, focus or tap highlighted words in the article to see quick definitions while you read or listen.
Discussion questions
- Have you noticed unusual or exciting posts more often than ordinary life in your feed? How did that affect your view of events?
- What simple steps could a user take to avoid thinking rare events are very common on social media?
- Do you think platforms should change how they show posts to reduce this effect? Why or why not?
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