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New Study Finds That Most Redditors Don't Actually Read the Articles They Vote On (vice.com)

Posted by msmash on from the reading-pattern dept.

Michael Byrne, writing for Motherboard: According to a paper published in IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems by researchers at Notre Dame University, some 73 percent of posts on Reddit are voted on by users that haven't actually clicked through to view the content being rated. This is according to a newly released dataset consisting of all Reddit activity of 309 site users for a one year period. In the process, the researchers identified signs of "cognitive fatigue" in Reddit users most likely to vote on content. Online aggregation is then somewhat a function of mental exhaustion.

9 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. In similar news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    99% of /.ers don't read the articles posted before commenting.

  2. Isn't that what mod points are for? by foghelmut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I mean, that's how it works here too, right?

    1. Re:Isn't that what mod points are for? by goose-incarnated · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ask yourself why you self-identify as as male feminist instead of an egalitarian. And no, don't say you identify identify both because one is more important important you than the other, and you identified as one before the other.

      You should also be wondering why self-identified egalitarian mostly don't identify with you.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  3. UNBGBBIIVCHIDCTIICBG by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Upvoted Not Because Girl, But Because It Is Very Cool; However, I Do Concede That I Initially Clicked Because Girl.

    --
    Summation 2
  4. I don't believe it by nospam007 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not reading TFA?
    Call me shocked.
    The author must be a newbie.

    1. Re:I don't believe it by Luthair · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The real irony is of course that it was posted on Slashdot 20-years after this was discovered.

  5. Confirmed by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I just vote up headlines that confirm my worldview and downvote the ones that don't.

  6. Whether or not this is a problem by king+neckbeard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To determine whether or not this is a problem, we have to determine what percentage of articles are actually worth reading over the headlines. If the articles are typically just fleshing out the headline, without anything meaningful added, this is efficient, rational behavior.

    --
    This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
  7. Orville S1E7 - Majority Rule by brendan.robert · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This episode of The Orville reminds me of this -- it seems that people just make split decisions because they can't be bothered with hearing and weighing the evidence presented to them. Probably because people aren't being asked to think into the areas of possible ambiguity, we just raise them to pick from a selection of choices. The millennial generation might as well be called the multiple choice generation. So glad I'm from the "Choose your own adventure" generation. ;)