标题：Why Do People Share What They Do? Here’s What Neuroscience, Psychology, and Relationships Tell Us About Highly Shareable Content
人们为什么爱分享？本文将从神经学、心理学、人际关系三点分别阐述
摘自：fastsocialfollower丨作者： Ann Silvers
译者：陈雪梅（红莲）
What makes you stop scrolling through an article, open up a social media app and hit the share button?
Is it logic, emotion, or something else?
Turns out, there’s more to social sharing than just measuring metrics: Psychology.
The strange nature of our brains is the reason we hotly debate the color of a dress or why we freely and emotionally share a post by a grieving widow after the death of her husband or why we feel an urgent need to pass on that video of the ice-cream eating dog to our animal-loving father-in-law. (Guilty!)
是什么让你停留在一篇文章，打开一款社交媒体APP并点击分享它？
是逻辑？情感？还是其它原因？
心理学表明：相较于单纯地衡量指标，更多的是社会分享。
为什么我们会激烈地争论一条裙子的颜色？为什么我们会不由自主地分享悲痛欲绝的寡妇所写的文章？为什么当我们看到狗狗吃冰淇淋的视频后，会迫不及待地跟喜爱小动物的公公分享？这都归功于我们大脑的奇怪天性。（内疚！）
It’s not logic that guides those shares; it’s emotion. How else can you explain 8.2 million hits to aYouTube music video that a majority of people claim to have not liked?
If you want your content to be shared and shared regularly, understanding the “why” and “how” behind social shares can go a long way in showing you how to craft the perfect post for your audience. In order to do so, you might want to:
1. Understand why people share content
2. Know what kind of content they’re more likely to share
3. Set about the task of creating content that satisfies those emotions
We’ve put together a few handy tips on how to understand what your audience wants and start the process of delivering it to them.
导致人们分享的原因不是逻辑，而是情感。否则你如何解释一段YouTube上的音乐视频在绝大多数人不喜欢的情况下，却有820万点击量？
如果你想要你的文章被大量分享，你需要了解社会分享背后的“原因”和“方式”，这样你才能为你的读者创作一篇完美的文章。为了达到这个效果，你需要做到如下几点：
1 搞清楚人们为什么分享
3 着手创作满足人们这些情感的文章
本文中，我们给出了一些建议，关于怎样了解读者的需求，并且逐步创作他们所需求的作品。
5 Reasons Why People Share to Social Media
1. Neuroscience: We share to entertain, inspire, and be useful
Even though social media does have a tendency of having people focus on themselves, the primary reason that people share things on their Facebook pages or Twitter feeds, research shows, is to be useful to others.
In a 2013 study conducted by psychologists at UCLA, the researchers were, for the first time, able to determine which brain regions are associated with ideas that become contagious and which regions are associated with being an effective communicator of ideas.
人们在社交媒体分享的5大原因
1 精神学：娱乐，激励，有用
尽管社交媒体的目的就是让人们关注他们，但是研究表明，人们在Facebook或者Twitter上分享的主要原因是这将对别人有帮助。
2013年，加利福利亚大学洛杉矶分校的心理学家通过研究首次发现，大脑的哪个区域与蔓延性的思想相联系，以及大脑的哪个区域与思想的有效沟通相联系。
The TPJ or the temporoparietal junction is this area of the brain that lit up during functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI) brain scans when people were first exposed to new ideas that they would later recommend.
当功能磁共振脑扫描，人们第一次接触自己将会分享的新观点时，大脑的颞顶交界区将呈现兴奋状态。
Matthew Lieberman——加利福利亚大学洛杉矶分校的心理学教授、生物行为科学教授，《社会：为什么我们的大脑是有线连接的》的作者，指出：
我们的研究表明，人们习惯想知道自己所看的东西将会多么有帮助，多么有趣，不仅是对自己，而且也对别人。我们总是在寻找还有谁也会觉得这个有帮助或者有趣，我们的大脑数据证明了这一点。刚开始看到信息时，人们就已脑洞大开，包括思考别人会觉得这个信息多么有趣。我们渴望共享信息，我认为这就是对我们思维的社会本质的深刻陈述。
Matthew Lieberman, a UCLA professor of psychology and of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences and author of the book Social: Why Our Brains are Wired to Connect, noted:
Our study suggests that people are regularly attuned to how the things they’re seeing will be useful and interesting, not just to themselves, but also to other people. We always seem to be on the lookout for who else will find this helpful, amusing or interesting, and our brain data are showing evidence of that. At the first encounter with information, people are already using the brain network involved in thinking about how this can be interesting to other people. We’re wired to want to share information with other people. I think that is a profound statement about the social nature of our minds.
2. Psychology: We share to express who we really are
In 1986, psychologists Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius recognized that there is a disparity between our “now self” and our “possible self.”
2 心理学：表达自己
1986年，心理学家Hazel Markus和Paula Nurius指出：“现在的自我”和“可能的自我”是有一定差距的。
同年，他们发表了一篇文章，解释了“可能的自我”的概念：
1 我们想要变成的理想的自我
2 我们能够变成的自我
3 我们害怕变成的自我
In a paper they published at the time, they developed the concept of our possible selves:
1. the ideal selves that we would like to become
2. the selves that we could become, and
3. the selves that we are afraid of becoming
This first self, the idealized version of ourselves is what we frequently tend to share on social media.
Whether or not this representation of our possible self is realistic or not is irrelevant, researchers note. The point is that we’re picturing in our minds this possible self that we are or may someday be and sharing information that fits in with this notion of who we are.
When we share in this mode, sometimes what we’re sharing is a sense of our ideal self and who we aspire to be. This is why some people share political commentary, outrage over particular issues, and success stories of people who they hope they can be like someday.
第一种，即理想的自我是我们经常在社交媒体上分享的自我。
研究者指出，作为可能的自我的代表，它是否现实并没有任何关系。重点是，我们脑中描绘出的可能的自我，以及分享符合自己特质的信息。
当我们用这种模式分享时，有时分享的内容象征了理想中的自我以及我们想要成为的自我。这就是为什么一些人喜欢分享政治评论，发表对特定事件的愤怒，以及分享他们所神往的成功人的故事。
正如作者所坚信地这样：
可能的自我促成了自己的流动性和可塑性，因为它们根据社会情形的不同而不同，而且它们决定了工作中自我概念的本质。同时，个人的希望和恐惧、目标和威胁、以及认知结构定义了自我概念的特征。
As the authors themselves so eloquently note:
Possible selves contribute to the fluidity or malleability of the self because they are differentially activated by the social situation and determine the nature of the working self-concept. At the same time, the individual’s hopes and fears, goals and threats, and the cognitive structures that carry the are defining features of the self-concept: these features provide some of the most compelling evidence of continuity of identity across time.
3. Community: To nurture our relationships
Whenever I see a funny comic about procrastination, I share it with my closest friend, a proud procrastinator. Whenever I see a funny dog video, I send it straight to my father-in-law, the animal lover.
Every time I see any of these things, I feel an immediate connection to those people. I think of them and feel the urge to share what I’ve found with them.
I’m not alone.
3 社区：培养人际关系
每当我看到关于拖延症的搞笑漫画，就会立马跟我最亲密的朋友分享，因为她就是个典型的拖延症者。每当我看到搞笑的狗狗视频，就会立马跟我的公公分享，因为他是个狗狗爱好者。
每当我看到任何有关这类的信息，我就会立马联想到这些人，并且迫切地想要跟他们分享我的发现。
我并不孤单。
纽约时报的一项关于纬度研究的客户洞察小组研究，名为“分享心理学：人们为什么爱在网上分享”，发现：78%的受访者表示他们网上分享信息，因为通过分享，他们可以与一些人保持联系，否则的话，他们将无法保持联系。
此外，73%的受访者表示分享信息可以让他们与和自己有共同爱好的人保持联系。
In a study undertaken by The New York Times Customer Insight Group in conjunction with Latitude Research titled “The Psychology of Sharing: Why Do People Share Online?” 78% of respondents said that they shared information online because it let them stay connected to people they may not otherwise stay in touch with.
Further, 73% of them said they shared information because it allowed them to connect with others who shared their interests.
4. Motivation: To feel more involved
In my days of daily journalism, an editor at a local newspaper once told me his fix for a slow news day.
Dogs and babies.
4 动机：更有参与感
在每日新闻的日子里，当地报社的一名编辑曾告诉我：
狗狗和宝宝
他说：“狗狗和宝宝都很可爱，他们能扣住你的心弦。没有人能够抗拒可爱的狗狗或者可爱的宝宝。最好是把两者放在一块。”
“They’re cute,” he would say. “They pull at your heartstrings. No one can resist a cuddly dog or a cute baby. Preferably both together.”
The medium may have changed but the message hasn’t. People still love cuddly dogs, cute babies,preferably both together.
媒介会变，但是信息不会。人们仍然喜爱可爱的狗狗，还有宝宝，特别是两者放在一块。
事实上，早在50年前，就有研究验证：为什么人们过去和现在讨论品牌的结论一致。1996年，在哈佛商业评论的一篇研究报道中，研究员Earnest Dichter指出，64%的分享都是关于分享者自己的。
他指出，人们讨论品牌无非以下四个动机：
1 产品原因约占33%：产品的体验非常的好、独特，或者足够新颖，让你不得不分享。
2 自身原因约占24%：通过分享，让人们知道你是该产品的顾客之一，你有内部信息，以此来获得其他人的关注。
3 其它原因约占20%：想要帮助别人，表达关心或者友谊。
4 最后，信息原因约占20%：这个信息非常棒或者很有趣，值得分享。
In fact, as far back as fifty years ago, studies were being undertaken to see why people talked about brands and coming to the same conclusions that we are today. In 1966, in a study reported on by the Harvard Business Review, the researcher Earnest Dichter found that 64% of sharing is about the sharer themselves.
He noted that there were four motivations for a person to communicate about a brand.
1. The first (about 33% of the time) was because of product-involvement, that is the experience was so good, unique, or new that it had to be shared.
2. The second (about 24%) was self-involvement, that is, to gain attention by showing people that you were part of an exclusive club of buyers or had inside information.
3. The third (around 20%) was other-involvement, that is wanting to help out and express caring or friendship.
4. And finally, the fourth (also around 20%) was message-involvement, that is, the message was so wonderful or funny or brilliant that it deserved to be shared.
5. Altruism: To get the word out about specific causes
In the New York Times Customer Insight Group report, 84% of respondents said they share because “it is a way to support causes or issues they care about.”
In fact, the report further goes to show that 85% of people say reading other people’s responses helps them understand and process information and events. So not only do we share information about the causes that are dear to us, but we respond to causes that are dear to other people if they take the time to share that information with us through social media.
Remember the ALS Ice Bucket challenge?
5 利他主义：特殊原因
在《纽约时报》客户洞察小组报告中，84%的受访者表示，他们之所以分享，是因为这是支持他们所关心的事件或问题的方式之一。
事实上，该报告还显示，85%的受访者表示阅读别人的评价可以帮助他们理解并处理信息和事件。因此，我们不仅分享对我们有用的东西，而且还会评论对别人有用的东西，如果他们愿意花时间通过社交媒体分享的话。
还记得ALS的冰桶挑战吗？
What People Share and How to Make Your Content Go Viral
In a research study titled “Why Content Goes Viral,” assistant professor of marketing at the Wharton School of Business Jonah Berger (who you may also know as the author of the book Contagious) and co-author Katy Milkman looked at 7,000 articles published at The New York Times to see which ones got the most views and social shares and why. The goal of the study was to document what makes content go viral and how to replicate those findings to create viral content.
This infographic from CoSchedule does a great job capturing some of the findings of the study:
在《文章为什么被疯狂传播》的研究中，沃顿商学院的市场营销助理教授Jonah Berger（他也是《Contagious》的作者）以及合著者Katy Milkman查阅了发表于《纽约时报》的7000篇文章，以找出阅读量和分享量最大的文章，并探明原因。研究的目的是为了记录是什么让文章被疯狂传播，并且怎样通过这样发现来创造出更多的分享量高的文章。
CoSchedule的图表有效地呈现了该研究的一些发现：
The researchers from the study came up with three key ideas based on their findings:
基于研究成果，研究人员得出了三个关键点：
1 积极的内容胜过消极的内容
Facebook上你可能意识不到，但是Berger和Milkman发现积极的内容和故事比那些消极的新闻故事更易被分享传播。
你对此感到惊讶吗？绝大多数的人都会感到惊讶。但是负面消息比好消息更加让人印象深刻，这是因为我们大脑的“消极偏见”。人类大脑对负面消息的反应和反馈比任何积极消息都要敏感，因此，一天下来你可能听了上百条积极的消息，但是你只记住了那条生病小孩的新闻。这也解释了为什么在你忘记了所有的赞美和荣誉后，却唯独记得那些侮辱和攻击。
然而，研究表明，如果你想要自己的内容被广泛分享传播，积极的文章更加奏效。
1. Positive content trumps negativity
You may not know it from your Facebook feed, but Berger and Milkman found that positive content and stories were far more likely to be shared and to go viral than negative news stories.
Are you surprised by this finding? Most people are. But the reason bad news sticks in our minds more than good news is because of our brain’s “negativity bias.” Human brains are wired to react with greater sensitivity to bad news and feedback than anything positive, and so you may see and hear a hundred pieces of positive news throughout your day but remember that one news story about a sick child. It also explains why you remember an insult or attack decades after all the compliments and accolades have been forgotten.
Yet, research shows that if you want your content to go viral and reach more people, it has more of a likelihood of doing so if it comes in a positive package.
怎样创作积极的文章
使用积极的语境构架事件。研究表明，标题使用最高级效果卓越。例如：
最好
最大
最伟大
正如Courtney 在文章中解释的，Buffer注重积极性和幸福感，这就意味着，我们使用文章呈现这个技巧，例如：《今天起停止做这10件事情，你将更开心》，《科学支持》。
How to create positive content
Try framing events in a positive context. Research shows that superlatives can be super effective in headlines. For example:
· Best
· Biggest
· Greatest
As Courtney explains in this post, Buffer’s focus on positivity and happiness means that we turn this technique inside out with posts such as 10 Things To Stop Doing Today to Be Happier, Backed by Science.
2. Content that evokes high arousal emotions does better
This is probably not quite as surprisingly, but Berger and Milkman found that the more a piece of content could evoke a high-arousal emotion such as awe, anger, anxiety, fear, sadness, humor, or wonder, the better its chances of being shared repeatedly and going viral.
That’s why counter-intuitive takes on issues do so well and why articles that make you angry are often the ones that you forward to friends.
2 能唤起人们兴奋情绪的内容分享量更大
这不足为奇，但是Berger和Milkman发现，越能唤起你兴奋情绪的内容，越能被广泛分享并疯狂传播，例如，敬畏、愤怒、焦虑、恐惧、悲伤、幽默或者惊讶。这就是为什么反直觉的问题以及让你愤怒的文章会被分享。
事实上，我们在Buffer的研究有力地证明了该观点，在近期的实验中，我们发现信息疯狂传播的关键因素之一是惊讶。
在《纽约时报》研究中，我们发现不同维度下得分高的文章分别如下：
In fact, this is backed up by our own research here at Buffer. In a recent experiment, we found that one of the key things that makes images go viral is an element of surprise.
In the NYT study, the articles that scored highly on different dimensions were:
情绪性：
*抑郁被重新定义为单纯的悲伤
*当一切失败后，下一步就会责备没有耐心
积极性：
*天真的新来者爱上了这个城市
*托尼慈善奖（低分）
*韩国女星自杀的相关网络谣言
*德国：幼年北极熊饲养者之死
Emotionality:
· Redefining Depression as Mere Sadness
· When All Else Fails, Blaming the Patient Often Comes Next
Positivity:
· Wide-Eyed New Arrivals Falling in Love with the City
· Tony Award for Philanthropy
(Low-scoring)
· Web Rumors Tied to Korean Actress’s Suicide
· Germany: Baby Polar Bear’s Feeder Dies
Awe:
· Rare Treatment Is Reported to Cure AIDS Patient
· The Promise and Power of RNA
敬畏性：
*艾滋病患者难以治愈
*RNA的承诺与权利
愤怒：
*什么赤字？华尔街支付高额奖金
*贷款巨头支付麦凯恩顾问近200万美元
悲伤：
*走出9/11，重建家园
*奥巴马悼念祖母
Anger:
· What Red Ink? Wall Street Paid Hefty Bonuses
· Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $ 2 Million
Anxiety
· For Stocks, Worst Single-Day Drop in Two Decades
· Home Prices Seem Far From Bottom
Sadness
· Maimed on 9/11, Trying to Be Whole Again
· Obama Pays Tribute to His Grandmother After She Dies
How to create emotional content
One of the driving forces for emotional content is someone’s first touch with your content: the headline.
怎样创作富有感情的内容
富有感情的文章的驱动力之一发生在别人第一次接触你的文章，即标题。
以下工具可以帮助确保你的标题能够吸人眼球：
*Coschedule标题分析仪——通过评分你的标题，Coschedule标题分析仪能快速地帮助优化你的标题。它只需要快速扫描下你的词组，然后归纳成四类：普通，不普通，富有感情的，有影响力的。你的词组越富有感情，影响力越大，你的标题就越好。
*高级市场营销研究所的标题分析仪——这个免费工具通过分析标题来决定标题的情感营销价值分数。通过分析标题中情感营销价值的单词占整个标题单词的比例来确定最终的分数。
There are some amazingly useful tools out there to help ensure your headline packs the right emotional punch.
· CoSchedule Headline Analyzer – This fantastic tool will quickly tell you how to improve your headlines by scoring you on your word choices. It takes a look at the words in your headline and sorts them into four categories: common, uncommon, emotional, and power. The more emotional and power words, the better your headline.
· Advanced Marketing Institute Headline Analyzer – This free tool analyzes your headlines to determine the Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) score of your headline. The tool analyzes the total number of EMV words in relation to the total number of words in the headline and comes up with a score.
3. Practical and useful information wins out every time
Finally, no surprise to anyone who has read and shared our own content here at Buffer (thank you, by the way!), content that helps you solve a problem, gives you actionable tips, and shows you practical strategies for living your life is destined for success as long as it can meet the needs of a large number of people and do it in a unique and interesting way.
How to create practical, useful content
In her article Transforming Content From Lifeless to Actionable, blogger Amanda Gallucci offers the following tips on how to do this effectively. She writes:
3 实用的和有用的信息总能赢得大家的分享
最后，有一点是毫无置疑的，只要你在Buffer分享的文章能够满足大多数人的要求，它将获得大量的分享。比如：帮助解决问题，提供可操作性的建议，为生活提供时间战略等。
怎样创作实用的、有用的文章呢？
1 包含读者：这可能涉及评论、调查，还有问题，但是最重要的是，文章中要引用读者。Gallucci建议创建交互模块，这样读者通过文章自行使用。
2 理论与实际相结合：研究和数字是很必要的，但是如果读者能将研究与生活相连接，或者利用研究解决问题，这将更加有价值。
3 超越你的行业：当灵感来临时，不要让你的行业局限你的创作。如果你涉足的领域是金融和数字，可以考虑学习创造性商务，反之亦然。
1. Involve your audience: This might involve comments, surveys, or questions, but most importantly, referencing your audience in the content itself. Gallucci suggests creating interactive modules that readers can use within the content itself.
2. Link your research to applications: Research and numbers are great, but showing how users canapply that research to their lives or solving their problems can be a great way of providing value.
3. Look beyond your industry: When it comes to inspiration, don’t let your industry experts be the only thing that guides you towards creating useful content that is a match for your audience. If your business focuses on finances and numbers, considering learning from creative businesses, and vice versa.
4. State the intended outcome early on: Whenever you’re creating a piece of content, it’s always a good idea to state, right upfront, what the visitor or reader will get if he or she reaches the end of the article. Make a promise to your reader to teach or educate them, and then keep it.
5. Think ahead: One of the best things you can do for your content is to have an editorial calendar that guides your day-to-day content decisions and gives you the flexibility and room to comment on industry-specific events and anniversaries and give readers an analysis of any big news that comes up in your space.
So there you have it. Be positive, touch on some emotions, and be useful. The three keys to creating content that gets shared again and again. And again.
4 提前陈述预期结果：当你在创作一篇文章时，最好是提前告诉读者在他读完这篇文章之后将会收获什么。向读者承诺他们会读有所获，并且履行你的承诺。
5 提前思考：在创作一篇文章之前，你可以准备一个编辑日历，计划好每天要写的内容，这样在评价特定行业的事件或者纪念日时，你会有更多的灵活性和空间，同时，读者也可以看到你对重大新闻的评价分析。
