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It doesn't have to be astroturfing. Repeatedly exposing HN readers to the same news would be a good way to gradually increase positive opinion until a desirable
by dorfcakeling 8y ago
It doesn't have to be astroturfing. Repeatedly exposing HN readers to the same news would be a good way to gradually increase positive opinion until a desirable threshold is reached ("the first positive top comment").
- ethbro 8y agoYou'll have to walk me through your logic on that again. How is repeated exposure more likely to increase positive opinion?
- misterhtmlcss 8y agoRead up on psychology and his comment will be totally self evident. This is a completely normal phenomenon.
- superkuh 8y agoIt is more likely to be perceived as a common opinion and then people tend to go with what they think the crowd thinks. (PDF) http://erewhon.superkuh.com/library/Neuroscience/Psychology/Inferring%20the%20Popularity%20of%20an%20Opinion%20From%20Its%20Familiarity_%20A%20Repetitive%20Voice%20Can%20Sound%20Like%20a%20Chorus_%20psp-925821.pdf http://erewhon.superkuh.com/library/Neuroscience/Psychology/...
- ethbro 8y agoThat would work through repeatedly exposing people to positive or favorable news. Aka astroturfing. Aka what I asked about. Parent comment specified the same news, which makes less sense. If I hear 100x that MS is buying GitHub, that doesn't make me more likely to respond favorably.
- saint_fiasco 8y agoSuppose it isn't more likely, that it is just random. All Microsoft has to do is pick the one article that has a positive opinion at the top and promote that one.
- ethbro 8y agoThat's astroturfing. Which is what my original comment was about.
- HeyLaughingBoy 8y agoThat's one of the basic premises of advertising!