Like Me! Retweet Me!

It seems that every online article these days practically begs its readers to "like" it, "retweet" it or somehow pass it along to fellow social media mavens. Have you ever wondered what it is that makes these articles like- or retweet-worthy? It happens to be more than just because the spirit moves you.

Penn Professor Jonah Berger (who, ironically, sort of looks like Jesse Eisenberg) recently concluded that a "physiological 'arousal'" elicited by particular emotions or even physical states is what causes people to share certain things over others. While this "sharing" characteristic is especially facilitated by high rates of social media use, humans have actually been doing it for thousands of years. Berger believes that this information could trigger new tactics for people and companies who hope to spread information on an even wider scale.

At the risk of sounding meta, we dare you like or retweet this post that explains the article that explains the reasons why people like and retweet posts and articles.