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>Facebook run fun psychological experiments to see if they can manipulate their users - without calling for volunteers first or anything I recognise as ethics.
by sh33mp 9y ago
>Facebook run fun psychological experiments to see if they can manipulate their users - without calling for volunteers first or anything I recognise as ethics.
I've always wondered: How is that different from A/B testing, or any other marketing experiment?
- falcolas 9y agoTwo things: - They weren't experimenting or measuring ads, clickthroughs, or pageviews views; they were experimenting on and measuring emotions directly - It was run as a psychological study, and published as a psychological study
- orangecat 9y agothey were experimenting on and measuring emotions directly Every change to an interface can potentially affect the emotions of users, whether or not you try to measure it.
- falcolas 9y agoI won't disagree with your statement, but there's a very large difference between intentionally changing a user's mood by modifying their news feed vs. indirectly and unintentionally affecting a users mood via an interface change.
- 908087 9y agoExcept in that experiment Facebook was intentionally trying to manipulate users' emotional states.