Why is the GME story so fascinating?
Jonah Berger, the author of Contagious, studies online virality. He demonstrated that “content that evokes high-arousal positive (awe) or negative (anger or anxiety) emotions is more viral. Content that evokes low-arousal, or deactivating, emotions (e.g., sadness) is less viral.”
This has all three A’s: awe, anger, and anxiety.
People aren’t just talking about money.
They’re talking about dreams of making money (awe).
You’ll also see so much anger geared towards traditional Wall Street. One Redditor wrote, “Millions of people suppressed by the 1% are coming out in droves to fight back.”
And, of course, there’s anxiety. People are white-knuckling this hoping to not lose their shirts.
This thing really has it all.
It’s the perfect storm of shareable content and emotions.
