The Emotions Behind Viral Content

We conducted two studies to find out, and have distilled our findings into key takeaways here.

Keep reading for how you can use our results to create viral content for your brand.

Covered by Harvard Business Review!

OUR FINDINGS

Positive emotions were the most common responses for the viral images. Specifically:

OUR FINDINGS

Negative emotions were less commonly found in highly viral content than positive emotions, but viral success was still possible when negative emotion also evoked anticipation and surprise.

EXAMPLE #1

EXAMPLE #2

OVERALL RESULTS

See all of our results here.

To increase chance of virality, create content that evokes positive emotions (particularly high-arousal feelings that fall under the surprise and anticipation categories: curiosity, interest, astonishment, and uncertainty).

TAKEAWAY

For this follow-up study, we had 400 participants record their emotional responses to 100 viral images – some with captions and some without.

THE EXPERIMENT

Covered by Harvard Business Review!

THE EXPERIMENT

THE EXPERIMENT

We used new research revolving around the Valence-Arousal- Dominance scale used in psychology. Individual emotions are made up of a combination of these three factors...

THE EXPERIMENT

Valence is the positivity or negativity of an emotion. Happiness has a positive valence, while fear has a negative valence.

Happiness Fear

THE EXPERIMENT

Arousal ranges from excitement to relaxation. Anger is a high-arousal emotion while sadness is low arousal.

Anger Sadness

THE EXPERIMENT

Dominance ranges from submission to feeling in control. Fear is low dominance, while an emotion a person has more choice over, such as admiration, is high dominance.

Admiration Fear

FINDING #1

When both arousal and dominance were high, the accompanying emotions were either all positive or a combination of positive emotions plus surprise.

Example image of paramedics cleaning dishes after woman was taken to the hospital:

FINDING #2

When arousal was high but dominance was low, the emotional responses were a combination of surprise, negative, and/or positive emotions.

Example image of cheetah jumping into a jeep during a safari:

FINDING #3

When both arousal and dominance were low, the sentiment of the emotional responses was more varied, but they almost always included surprise.

Example image of embarrassing moment on the baseball field:

TAKEAWAYS Combine positive emotions with surprise for massive sharing potential.

Pair low-arousal emotions (e.g., sadness or depression) with surprise or admiration.

Play up high-arousal emotions (e.g., anger, fear, or distress) in negative content that is not surprising.

See all of our results here.

LEARN MORE WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR CONTENT’S VIRAL POTENTIAL WITH OUR

ROLE OF EMOTIONS IN VIRAL CONTENT RESEARCH!