How often do you think about the Roman Empire?

This is not a trick question.

Source: Crew

In September 2023, #RomanEmpire went viral over social media, amassing over 1.2 billion views on TikTok. Most of these were from growing numbers of videos created mainly by women, taking up the challenge of asking the males in their social circles, how often they think about the Roman Empire. Turns out, men think about this ancient civilisation more often than we expect! In fact, up to several times a day.

But we're not here to discuss why the Roman Empire holds such interest. What we want to understand is why this particular social media trend, and those like the Ice Bucket Challenge or TikTok dance challenges go viral, and how we can harness the power of virality when it comes to social media marketing.

Source: The Guardian

But to do that, we need to first understand why we talk about, and share certain things? Why do we follow the crowd? Not surprisingly, it'll all related to how our brain works.

Dopamine rewards

Research shows that our brain releases dopamine when we anticipate or receive rewards. When we experience things that are novel, it stimulates a region in our midbrain and gives us a hit of dopamine. With social media, the novelty factor is the reward we anticipate.

Dopamine is addictive, and just like pokie machines, it is even more the case when the reward is random.

Source: 9News

Which is why we keep scrolling social media for the next hit – just in case we happen across the latest Tik Tok dance challenge or a video of someone throwing a bucket of ice over themselves.

Now that dopamine has kept us scrolling, what drives us to click and ‘like’?

Heuristics, shortcuts and social proof

Well, our brains work pretty hard. So, it’s understandable that it tries to find the easy path whenever it can.

Heuristics, or the way in which our brains take shortcuts to reduce the effort of thinking, is part of the reason we usually follow the crowd. When we see many people have already ‘liked’ a post, we know we would not be an outlier if we were to also ‘like’ the post. It reduces the risk of being different because different can be dangerous.

Source: Independent

From the times of cave people, and even in the animal kingdom, chances of survival reduce once you leave your pack due to predators. So, you stick together and follow the crowd.

Popular is safe.

Psychologist and marketers call this “social proof” – evidence that if everybody is doing it, it can’t be too wrong. Over time, evolution has resulted in our brains being wired towards following what people around us are doing.

Our Basic Needs

Our need for social connection and being part of a ‘tribe’ plays a huge role in the way we share online content.

A study by the New York Times found five main reasons we share content. Of these, two relate to connecting with others and the ability to use what we share online to “delight others” and foster relationships.

Sharing content speaks to our identity and tells the world who we are and what we believe in. The things we choose to share are motivated by our desire to be helpful individuals, stemming from our innate need to share noteworthy information.

As human beings, we’re programmed to share - so, we jump on the bandwagon and ask, “How often do you think about the Roman Empire?”

Source: Reddit

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Now that we understand the science behind social media virality, how do we harness its power? Click into the next post to find out.