Social Media Is Making Us Behave Like Rats, According to Study
On 3/8/21 at 10:43 AM EST
If you find yourself posting more and more content on Instagram because of the likes you receive, that s because your brain is apparently being conditioned to behave like that of a rat seeking food. At least, those are the findings of a new study conducted by an international team of scientists.
Is social media making us behave like rats?
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Using a computational model, the scientists found a direct correlation between the frequency with which a person posts and how many likes their posts receive. In a paper recently published in the science journal
Some individuals are driven to maximise their number of 'likes' on social media, which researchers say has parallels with the behaviour of animals seeking food rewards.