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Re:An argument that companies should pay users for their data by sh33mp on Thursday March 08, 2018 @09:20AM (#16544443)
>Facebook run fun psychological experiments to see if they can manipulate their users - without calling for volunteers first or anything I recognise as ethics.

I've always wondered: How is that different from A/B testing, or any other marketing experiment?

Re:An argument that companies should pay users for their data by falcolas on Thursday March 08, 2018 @09:49AM (#16544615)
Two things:

- They weren't experimenting or measuring ads, clickthroughs, or pageviews views; they were experimenting on and measuring emotions directly

- It was run as a psychological study, and published as a psychological study

Re:An argument that companies should pay users for their data by orangecat on Thursday March 08, 2018 @10:49AM (#16545027)
they were experimenting on and measuring emotions directly

Every change to an interface can potentially affect the emotions of users, whether or not you try to measure it.

Re:An argument that companies should pay users for their data by falcolas on Thursday March 08, 2018 @11:08AM (#16545195)
I won't disagree with your statement, but there's a very large difference between intentionally changing a user's mood by modifying their news feed vs. indirectly and unintentionally affecting a users mood via an interface change.
Re:An argument that companies should pay users for their data by 908087 on Thursday March 08, 2018 @12:34PM (#16545979)
Except in that experiment Facebook was intentionally trying to manipulate users' emotional states.