I think you're right - these are risks. One thing we've done is build it so you can't just post (a status). All you can do is ask a question or start a discussion. The answers/comments could then be low effort and emotional, but we'll rely on the community to determine this and outvote those answers.
One one hand, you'll have users trying hard to game the system (if you think karma is motivating, try actual money), populism, and on the other hand filter bubbles. I think these are strong forces, and it would be hard to stir it away from being full of low effort emotional-appealing posts.