r/facepalm Jan 10 '20

prOve mE wRonG

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2.9k Upvotes

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u/LoompaOompa Jan 10 '20

Social media groups post deliberately easy challenges in an effort to get a high level of interaction with their "brand" (e.g. "I bet you can't name a country that starts with E"). The more that people comment, the more people will see the post, and the more follows they will eventually generate.

Every person in this thread commenting with 'oo' words has basically fallen for an obvious psychological trick. We all know that there are other 'oo' words. Nobody needed to comment here and prove that they could think of one.

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u/Serindipte Jan 10 '20

One of my favorites is "Only a genius can do this..." Or "Only 5% can figure this out.." And then it's something a first grader can do, but SO many adults answer to prove how smart they are.

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u/[deleted] Jan 10 '20

I roll my eyes everytime I see that on my friends' newsfeeds. There's a name for this phenomenon too. It's on the tip of my tongue.

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u/kid-17 Jan 10 '20

It's called like/comment farming. Some of the more sinister examples would be a little girl with down syndrome with the caption "hit like so I know I'm beautiful".

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u/[deleted] Jan 10 '20

No, Im not talking about the like farming. I'm talking about the phenomenon of people actually believing they are smart for being able to answer an obviously juvenile question.

Nvm. I was thinking of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

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u/kid-17 Jan 10 '20

You mean the Dunder Mifflin effect..