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<a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/29/5855776/apple-ad-parenthood"> <strong>Next Story</strong> <span>The iPhone is the ultimate parenting tool in Apple's latest ad</span> </a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="permalink article-entry hentry" data-click-tracking='{ "category": "Article + Link Set" }'> <style type="text/css"> </style> <header><a class="entry-section-title" name="top"></a> <ul class="simplelist categories inline clearfix"> <li><a href="http://www.theverge.com/science" class="hub-color-link hub-science">Science</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.theverge.com/web" class="hub-color-link hub-web">Web</a></li> </ul> <h1 class="headline instapaper_title entry-title" id="stream_title" style="font-size: 40px; line-height: 1.24;" data-remote-headline-edit="title" data-remote-admin-entry-id="5619751">Facebook offers explanation for controversial News Feed psychology experiment</h1> <h2 class="subheadline" data-remote-headline-edit="summary" data-remote-admin-entry-id="5619751"><p>"Our goal was never to upset anyone."</p></h2> <script type="text/javascript"> Event.observe(window,'load',function(){ if (SBN.Streams == undefined){ SBN.Streams = {}; } SBN.Streams.inPlaceEditing = { streamTitle: 'Facebook offers explanation for controversial News Feed psychology experiment', streamSummary: '\"Our goal was never to upset anyone.\"' }; }); </script> <p class="byline vcard"> By <a href="http://www.theverge.com/users/Sam%20Byford" class="author fn">Sam Byford</a> <span class="publish-date">on <time class="updated" datetime="2014-06-29 20:08:00-0400" pubdate>June 29, 2014 08:08 pm</time></span> <span class="email"><script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ function hivelogic_enkoder(){var kode= "kode=\"oked\\\"=kode\\\"\\\\r=hn%g,@*>,*0=w4qkojhhr1+gDndwfuhkr1Bgwnqkojhh"+ "r1?g+n{lh.r@\\\\gn\\\\u0000,l+wDudkf1hgrn.,4.l+wDudkf1hgrn@.{~,5@.l>,40kwj"+ "qho1hgrn+?l>3@l+uri>**@{>_%{h@rg\\\\u0\\\\00f0hnr,u+kgpFud1FqruiVj.l>w5@@{"+ 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class="comment-count big"><a href="#comments">76</a><strong>Comments</strong></span> <span class="m-entry-admin-button" data-remote-admin-entry-type="button" data-remote-admin-entry-id="5619751"></span> </p> </header> <div class="column grid_8 c-contain border-r pad-bot0"> <div class="follow-the-verge instapaper_ignore entry-unrelated"> <p>Don't miss stories <em>Follow The Verge</em></p> <a href='https://plus.google.com/+TheVerge/posts'> <span class="google-socialbar"> <span class="g-icon"></span> </span> </a> <div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/verge" data-width="55" data-layout="button_count" data-action="like" data-show-faces="false" data-share="false"></div> <a href="https://twitter.com/verge" class="twitter-follow-button" data-show-count="true" data-show-screen-name="false">Follow</a> </div> <div class="story-image entry-content-asset"> <div class="shadowbox"> <img alt="" class=" vox-lazy-load" data-imgkey="34985067:standard:12" 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data-counturl="http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/29/5855710/facebook-responds-to-psychology-research-controversy" data-text="Facebook offers explanation for controversial News Feed psychology experiment" data-url="http://vrge.co/1iKL0D2" data-via="verge"></a> <div class="g-plusone" id="googleplus" data-size="tall" data-href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/29/5855710/facebook-responds-to-psychology-research-controversy"></div> <script type="text/javascript"> //<![CDATA[ Util.loadScriptAsync('http://platform.linkedin.com/in.js') //]]> </script> <script type="IN/Share" data-counter="top" data-url="http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/29/5855710/facebook-responds-to-psychology-research-controversy" data-onSuccess="Util.trackLinkedIn"></script> </div> </div> <div id="article-body" class="article-body instapaper_body entry-content"> <p>Facebook caused a stir over the weekend with the revelation that it had been <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/28/5852652/facebook-altered-689000-users-news-feeds-for-a-psychology-experiment">altering the content of some users' News Feeds</a> in an attempt to study the psychology behind what causes people to post emotional material. Now Adam Kramer, Facebook data scientist and co-author of the study, has <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/akramer/posts/10152987150867796">posted an explanation</a> of the motivation behind the research, which he says serves as Facebook's statement on the matter.</p> <p>"The reason we did this research is because we care about the emotional impact of Facebook and the people that use our product," says Kramer. "We felt that it was important to investigate the common worry that seeing friends post positive content leads to people feeling negative or left out. At the same time, we were concerned that exposure to friends' negativity might lead people to avoid visiting Facebook."</p> <div class="m-ad m-ad__article-body"> <div id="open_x_ad_unit_563441" class="open_x_ad" data-cb-ad-id="Mobile article body" data-cb-dfp-id="unit=563441"> <script type="text/javascript"> SBN.OpenX.showAd(563441); </script> </div> </div> <p></p> <hr class="widget_boundry_marker hidden page_break"> <p><q class="right">"In hindsight, the research benefits of the paper may not have justified all of this anxiety."</q></p> <p>Kramer notes that the study affected 0.04 percent of users over one week in 2012, though at Facebook's scale that covers hundreds of thousands of people. The study's findings contradicted conventional wisdom, according to the scientist, as seeing positive emotions on Facebook was found to encourage similarly positive content. In a separate statement <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/29/facebook-users-emotions-news-feeds" target="_blank">provided to <i>The Guardian</i></a>, Facebook said the research was designed to "improve our services and to make the content people see on Facebook as relevant and engaging as possible."</p> <p>"Having written and designed this experiment myself, I can tell you that our goal was never to upset anyone," says Kramer. "I can understand why some people have concerns about it, and my co-authors and I are very sorry for the way the paper described the research and any anxiety it caused. In hindsight, the research benefits of the paper may not have justified all of this anxiety." Kramer says that Facebook has improved its internal review practices since 2012, and future research will take the reaction to this study into account.</p> <div class="article-meta clearfix"> <ul class="simplelist sourcelist clearfix"> <li class="via clearfix"> <strong>Via</strong> <span><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/29/facebook-explains-emotion-experiment/">Engadget</a></span> </li> <li class="source clearfix"> <strong>Source</strong> <span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/akramer/posts/10152987150867796">Adam Kramer (Facebook)</a> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/29/facebook-users-emotions-news-feeds">The Guardian</a></span> </li> <li class="tags clearfix"> <strong>Related Items</strong> <span><a href="http://www.theverge.com/tag/research">research</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/tag/facebook">facebook</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/tag/explanation">explanation</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/tag/psychology">psychology</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/tag/experiment">experiment</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/tag/statement">statement</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/tag/news-feed">news feed</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/products/brands/facebook/504">Facebook</a></span> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class="m-link-sets__article-three link-sets grid_8"> <div class="m-link-sets__title-bar"> <h2>More from <a href="http://www.theverge.com/">The Verge</a></h2> </div> <div class="m-link-sets-video"> <div class="m-link-sets-video__player" id="link-set-video-player"> <div class="m-link-sets-video__main-entry"> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/27/5849994/googles-new-material-design-direction-video" class="m-link-sets-video__main-link" data-chorus-video-id='50297' data-video-title="Google's new material design direction"></a> <div class="m-link-sets-video__image vox-lazy-load" data-imgkey="34907313:cinema:24" data-original="http://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/34907657/MATIAS_STILL.0_cinema_850.0.jpg" data-ratio="1.8" lazy="true"></div> <div class="m-link-sets-video__player-meta"> <h3 style="font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.24;">Google's new material design direction</h3> </div> </div>Í </div> </div> <script> Chorus.VideoContext.addVideos([{"id":50297,"provider_video_type":"ooyala","provider_video_id":"11eXZobjrG8DCSTgrNjVinU-YmmdYjhe","provider_video_data":{},"preview_urls":{},"title":"Google's new material design direction","description":"Google has a new metaphor for how design works across all of it's properties. 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