Why do people share what they share? Cute cats, crazy twerking videos, touching moments between perfect strangers, silly memes, inspirational quotes? More often than not, it's because these 'sharables' are emotionally arousing.
I know, that sounds dirty, right?
But according to research, we are more likely to share when in a heightened state of physiological arousal. Jonah Berger defines physiological arousal as:
...a state of activation and readiness for action. The heart beats faster and blood pressure arises. Evolutionarily, it comes from our ancestors' reptilian brains.
Though we don't have to outrun predators as often, the reptilian brains remain. Berger studied a group and found those with heightened states of urgency were more likely to share than those in a resting position. Think about when you are most likely to share? When you've just gone to the grocery store and nothing out of the ordinary happened? Or when you have just encountered something that made your heart race? Like seeing a car accident? Or watching a random act of kindness?
In fact, people don't tend to share much at all when they are relaxed and content. They would rather just enjoy that relaxing moment. And when you are sad, you tend to go inwards and introspective. Plus, we don't want to be downers, right?
Berger maps high and low states of arousal like this:
I think of stuff like this as High Arousal:
And, when it comes to anger? How many times have you seen people share misinformation on Facebook about it's 'changing terms'? Yep. Anxiety.
Of course, high emotional arousal is only one of the 6 dimensions of sharability, but it's the one I see spreading most like wildfire. When we laugh, when we tear up, when we gasp, when we coo, when we are surprised (good and bad), when we get excited and when we fear...those are the times we share.
So...how are YOU going to emotionally arouse people with your message? The bar is set pretty high nowadays. Just ask Miley. ;)
by Tara Hunt
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