However, does this newfound call for civility stand at odds with the emotional engine and business model powering virality, shareability, engagement, and ultimately impression volume on social platforms? A University of Texas social psychology study found “that the more intense the emotional response the more likely research participants were to pass along a video to others, regardless of whether or not it made them feel happy or sad.”

Essentially, the algorithms that make social platforms so successful – and addictive – are optimized for outrage. A phenomena called “emotional contagion” has become the lynchpin of how social media platforms deliver impressions to advertisers. The more anger and outrage social media users feel, the more likely they are to return to a conversation to weigh in, observe, attack, respond which ultimately increases impressions and digital advertising revenue.

On the one hand, calls for civility across social media platforms could mitigate advertiser concerns and advertiser boycotts by creating more “brand safety”, but it’s not clear there would be enough pageviews and engagement left to deliver impressions. At the same time, social media platforms must mitigate advertiser concerns and avoid boycotts that pose long-term reputational risk. To thread the needle effectively, social media platforms should not only develop higher impact advertising units (e.g., video and native advertising or capturing a percentage of influencer advertising dollars via a centralized marketplace) but also find long-form content types that capture enough attention to test and iterate with non-skippable advertising content.


Ultimately, a call for civility is a socially responsible business pursuit and, when executed correctly, preempts not only government regulation, but also presents an opportunity to invest and develop high impact, high CPM advertising units that improve advertiser experiences, protect brands that do advertise, create a more dynamic advertiser auction model, and improve user experience