They Tested Our Emotions ... and Never Told Us

This makes me see red. In 2012, Facebook quietly ran one of the largest psychological experiments in history. No consent forms. No warnings. No transparency. Just 689,000 people unknowingly turned into lab subjects.

What were they testing?

Whether they could manipulate our emotions.

They changed the feeds of different users (maybe my feed, maybe yours – they didn’t ask):

• Some of us saw more negative posts
• Some of us saw more positive posts

Nothing dramatic — just tiny shifts in tone and content — but what happened is disturbing.

• Users exposed to sadder content posted more negative words.
• Users exposed to happier content posted happier words.

This means something profound:
Your mood — your internal emotional reality — can be shaped by a feed you didn’t design and a company you didn’t authorize.

This obviously wasn’t an accident. It was a proof of concept.

Once they knew they could move emotions around, the question became: How far can we take it?

Here’s what many people still don’t know:

Every app you use today is running micro-experiments on you.

Every scroll.
Every pause.
Every swipe.
Every time you type a comment and delete it(!!)

Your actions are feeding dozens of tests running in real time.

The goal isn’t to serve you content you’ll “like.” It’s to serve you content that will keep you emotionally reactive, because that emotional reactivity creates longer engagement — and longer engagement drives more ad revenue.

Your feelings were the variable.

The platforms have become “a marketplace for our minds.” Not our preferences. Our moods.

There’s a reason you feel pulled toward outrage.
There’s a reason doomscrolling hooks you.
There’s a reason comparison hits harder now than it did a decade ago.

It’s not because you changed. It’s because the algorithms got better at SHAPING you.

This is so important for us to know. When you know you’re being influenced, you can reclaim your agency.

This week, notice your emotional reactions when you scroll:

• Do certain posts spike anxiety?
• Do others make you feel inferior?
• Does your feed push anger, envy, or fear?

None of that is random.

But, again, awareness changes everything.

We are being tested — constantly.
And once you see the experiment for what it is, you can choose differently.

In future posts, we’ll dive into how these emotional patterns spill into the rest of your life — including your relationships, your kids, and your sense of self.

For now, hold onto this truth:

If they can influence you without your permission, you can reclaim your attention without theirs.

And grab our free guide: 4 Ways to Hack Your Algorithm