Writing at Hubspot, Andrea Lehr unpacks the research and data collection process that revealed the top emotional responses to the 100 most shareable images on the /r/pics subreddit. The results are displayed below:
Most notably, the emotions are incredibly positive. But there’s more research digging into the reasons behind these emotions:
Valence is the positivity or negativity of an emotion. Happiness has a positive valence; fear has a negative valence.Arousal ranges from excitement to relaxation. Anger is a high-arousal emotion; sadness is low-arousal.Dominance ranges from submission to feeling in control. Fear is low-dominance; an emotion someone has more choice over, such as admiration, is high-dominance.”
The article continues unpacking the combinations of these three signifiers that work best to snag audiences and ensure shareable images, but the important factors come from the audiences themselves. What emotions do they feel after seeing your images or video? Try to aim for those on the list above. Consider their individual contributions below:
