There have been numerous studies showing that outrage is one of the most viral emotions. For whatever reason, seeing something that makes you upset has a very high correlation with people sharing/liking/retweeting. I think this unfortunate fact is what is being born out in social media.
Research shows that amazing good news, like a huge leap forward in cancer research, is even more viral. But unfortunately those happen much more rarely up than someone saying something stupid and getting lambasted.
Ryan Holiday's book "Trust me I'm lying" also really opened my eyes to how a lot of this stuff works.
Smithsonian had a good short article on it: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-emotion-go...
Research shows that amazing good news, like a huge leap forward in cancer research, is even more viral. But unfortunately those happen much more rarely up than someone saying something stupid and getting lambasted.
Ryan Holiday's book "Trust me I'm lying" also really opened my eyes to how a lot of this stuff works.