Facebook's Secret Psychological Experiment

The video discusses a controversial Facebook experiment conducted in 2012, where users' newsfeeds were manipulated to study emotional contagion. The experiment involved 683,000 users without their knowledge, and results showed a minimal effect on users' emotions. Public reaction focused more on the ethics of the experiment than the findings. Legal concerns were raised about informed consent. Similar experiments by Facebook and Google are common, raising questions about regulation and the definition of human experimentation.

What was the main focus of the psychological experiment conducted by Facebook and Cornell University?

• To evaluate user satisfaction with Facebook services

• To analyze the effectiveness of newsfeed algorithms

• To understand emotional contagion among users

• To study the impact of advertisements on user behavior

How did Facebook filter the newsfeeds of users during the experiment?

• By randomly hiding posts without any criteria

• By using an automated program to scan for positive and negative terms

• By manually reviewing each post

• By asking users to select their preferred content

What was a major concern raised by the public regarding the Facebook experiment?

• The selection of participants

• The duration of the experiment

• The lack of user consent

• The accuracy of the results

What did the Facebook study on echo chambers reveal?

• Echo chambers have a minimal effect on user information diversity

• Users are unaware of the echo chamber effect

• Echo chambers significantly limit user exposure to diverse information

• Users primarily rely on friends for news

What ethical question is raised about experiments conducted by companies like Facebook and Google?

• Whether they improve user experience

• Whether they constitute human experimentation

• If they are beneficial for market research

• If they should be more frequent