Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com.

I'm Cody Goff. And I'm Ashley Hamer.

Today you learn about why shaming people online often backfires,

the most energetic explosion ever, and how brushing your teeth can protect your heart.

Let's satisfy some curiosity.

Viral outrage is pretty common in our digital age.

Researchers define it as a piling up of online condemnation

in response to offensive remarks.

And it feels good to join in on that viral shaming when someone says something wrong, right?

Maybe it feels like you're going to teach that person a lesson and help other people avoid making the same mistake.

Well, science says that when you shame people online, you're not helping.

In fact, that shaming could very well backfire and that ends with sympathy for the

offending party. This idea comes from a study that was trying to figure out what people think of targets of viral outrage.

For the study, researchers showed offensive social media posts to thousands of participants. search As anger started to pile on, mass fury seemed more and more normal to the participants.

They themselves grew angrier.

But at the same time, they started to think the group anger was excessive and they felt more sympathy for the target and

Interestingly this was true regardless of how offensive the target's post was

It also didn't seem to matter if the person who posted it was a

celebrity, a politician, or your average Joe. In every case, both outrage and

sympathy increased the more the post went viral.

So no, viral outrage doesn't accomplish anything good.

According to the researchers on these studies, angry internet mobs are not that effective at convincing people that someone

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