Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania did a study of what articles people tend to forward, and why.
In an nutshell, they tend to forward stories that are positive, unexpected items, in-depth, and longer rather than shorter.
They also tend to be about science.
Which is surprising, as I’d have thought it would be celebrity gossip stuff. It sort of defied expectations.
Or, as the principal investigator put it: “Science kept doing better than we expected . . . We anticipated that people would share articles with practical information about health or gadgets, and they did, but they also sent articles about paleontology and cosmology. You’d see articles shooting up the list that were about the optics of deer vision.â€
More is at “Will You Be E-Mailing This Column? It’s Awesome.”