Contagious Why Things Catch On

The
New York Times, Ad Age
, and a host of other media outlets. Soon seven out of the top ten searches for
“Motrin” and “headache” on Google referred to the marketing debacle.
Finally, after too long a delay, Motrin took the advertisement down from its website and issued a
lengthy apology.
—————
Technology has made it easier for people to organize behind a common interest or goal. By
allowing people to connect quickly and easily, social media enable like-minded individuals to find
one another, share information, and coordinate plans of action.
These technologies are particularly useful when people either live far apart or are dealing with an
issue that has delicate political or social meaning. Many people point to social media as the catalyst

---

behind the Arab Spring, the wave of antigovernment protests that broke out across the Arab world,
eventually toppling the governments of Tunisia and Egypt, among others.
Some of these burgeoning social movements are positive. Enabling citizens to rise up against
dictatorships or helping teens facing harassment to realize that life gets better.
But in other cases the comments and movements are negative in nature. False rumors may start to
gain traction. Vicious gossip may circulate and build. Is it possible to predict which flare-ups will
remain isolated comments and which will snowball?
Part of the answer comes back to physiological arousal. Certain types of negativity may be more
likely to escalate because they evoke arousal and are thus more likely to go viral. Angry tirades about
bad customer service, or anxious rumors about how a new health plan may take away benefits, should
be more likely to circulate than expressions of sadness or disappointment.
So teachers and principals should be particularly wary of hurtful rumors that carry an arousing
punch because they are more likely to get passed around. Similarly, Motrin’s maker could have
stemmed the boycott before it started by monitoring online chatter. By looking for words like “pissed
off,” “angry,” or “mad” in people’s posts, tweets, or status updates the company could have
addressed unsatisfied customers before the anger built. Fixing these high-arousal emotions early can
mitigate the negativity before it snowballs.
EXERCISE MAKES PEOPLE SHARE
Our emotional odyssey has one last stop.
At Wharton, we have a behavioral lab where people are paid to do various psychology and
marketing experiments. These tasks often involve clicking boxes in an online survey or circling items
on a sheet of paper.
But when people came in for an experiment of mine one November a few years ago, the
instructions were a bit more unusual.
Half the participants were asked to sit still in their chairs for sixty seconds and relax. Easy enough.
The other half, however, were asked to jog lightly in place for a minute. Regardless of whether
they were wearing sneakers or pumps, jeans or slacks, they were asked to run in place for sixty
seconds in the middle of the laboratory.
Okay. Sure. I guess. Some participants gave us a puzzled look when we made the request, but all
complied.
After they were done, they participated in what seemed like a second, unrelated experiment. They
were told the experimenters were interested in what people share with others and were given a recent
article from the school newspaper. Then, after reading it, they were given the option of e-mailing it to
anyone they liked.
In actuality, this “unrelated study” was part of my initial experiment. I wanted to test a simple but
intriguing hypothesis. At this point we knew that emotionally arousing content or experiences would
be more likely to be shared. But I wondered whether the effects of arousal might be even broader than
that. If arousal induces sharing, then might any physiologically arousing experience drive people to
share stories and information with others?
Running in place provided the perfect test. Running doesn’t evoke emotion, but it is just as
physiologically arousing. It gets your heart rate up, increases blood pressure, etc. So if arousal of any
sort boosts sharing, then running in place should lead people to share things with others. Even if the
things people are talking about or sharing have nothing to do with the reason they are experiencing

---

arousal.
And it did. Among students who had been instructed to jog, 75 percent shared the article—more
than twice as many as the students who had been in the “relaxed” group. Thus any sort of arousal,
whether from emotional or physical sources, and even arousal due to the situation itself (rather than
content), can boost transmission.
—————
Understanding that arousing situations can drive people to pass things on helps shed light on so-
called oversharing, when people disclose more than they should. Ever been stuck next to someone on
a plane who won’t stop sharing what seem like extremely personal details? Or find yourself in a
conversation where later on you realize that you may have shared way more than you meant to? Why
does this happen?
Sure, we may feel more comfortable with someone than we thought we would or we may have had
one too many margaritas. But there is also a third reason. If situational factors end up making us
physiologically aroused, we may end up sharing more than we planned.
So be careful the next time you step off the treadmill, barely avoid a car accident, or experience a
turbulent plane ride. Because you’ve been aroused by these experiences, you may overshare
information with others in the aftermath.
These ideas also suggest that one way to generate word of mouth is to find people when they are
already fired up. Exciting game shows like