Currently, content showing off luxurious, shocking or offensive lives is easily attracting millions of views on social networks.
According to psychologist Mai Ngoc Quyen - NHC Vietnam Center for Human Development and Psychology - this stems from both the psychology of viewers and the content-prioritizing algorithm of platforms. Specifically:
Curiosity instinct: People are inherently attracted to new, unique, unusual or controversial things.
Social comparison trend: Images of luxurious life make many people both admire and be curious, even developing feelings of jealousy.
Effects from social network algorithms: Current platforms prioritize distributing shocking content, creating debate to increase interaction, making flashy, extreme images even more easily spread.
From a psychological perspective, this phenomenon is explained through two main mechanisms:
Nervous mechanism: When exposed to new or strongly stimulating images, the brain secretes dopamine - a neurotransmitter that creates excitement and urges people to continue to follow, even if the content does not have much value.
Social psychological mechanism: People tend to be curious and compare themselves to others. Luxurious images easily create feelings of both admiration and jealousy, forming a strong emotional vortex. The more controversial the content, the more likely it is to spread widely.
Psychologist Mai Ngoc Quyen also believes that when users clearly understand the operating mechanism of social networks and understand the psychological impacts that shocking content brings, they will be able to control their emotions and behavior better, instead of becoming a link in the vortex of spreading unworthy content.
