Why do people share news online?

A study from the University of Pennsylvania has found that

1.articles with positive rather than negative themes.

2.long articles on intellectually challenging topics and

3.articles that inspired awe.

are the way to get your articles shared.

They looked at 7,500 articles published in the the New York Times over a period of six months and found that social transmission,word of mouth and social epidemics are the key drivers of sharing.

According to Dr Berger a social psychologist and a professor of marketing at Penn’s Wharton School.

“It involves the opening and broadening of the mind.Seeing the Grand Canyon, standing in front of a beautiful piece of art, hearing a grand theory or listening to a beautiful symphony may all inspire awe. So may the revelation of something profound and important in something you may have once seen as ordinary or routine, or seeing a causal connection between important things and seemingly remote causes.”