Bingo!

The report examined articles shared on Facebook from the New York Times, BuzzFeed, Fox News and a dozen other media outlets and found that the more negative-slanting comments a story drew, the more likely Facebook’s algorithms were to promote it widely.

“Outrage gets attention,” surmised the researchers. They ruefully compared the strategy to “feeding users fast food,” an irresistibly effective tactic for hooking an audience that would surely prove harmful down the road.

Source: ‘Definitely not the results we want’: Facebook staff lamented ‘perverse incentives’ for media

NOTE – the media loves to point this out – that Facebook creates a culture of outrage. But that is the pot calling the kettle black, so to speak: the mainstream media does exactly the same thing by choosing what topics they cover and how they cover those topics. The media knows that people in a heightened emotional state are also more susceptible to advertising messages. And besides, hysterical fear inducing headlines generate more clicks.

Facebook knows, CNN knows this, Fox News news this, MSNBC knows this, the NY Times knows this – they all know this.