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In the years since Andrew Wiles solved Fermat’s Last Theorem, the greatest intellectual puzzle facing humankind has been: How does the New York Times “Most-emailed” list work? Social science has finally given us the answer! A team of sociologists at the University of Pennsylvania undertook an exhaustive study of the New York Times most-emailed list. They first assembled a data set based on the contents of the list over more than six months. Then they dug in to see why stories ended up there. Thus they unlocked the secret of journalism’s holy grail— and perhaps even of virality itself! Their findings, as reported by the Times’ John Tierney are a mix of the totally obvious and the Slate -y counter-intuitive. The obvious: A prominently-featured article is more likely to make the list, as is one written by a famous person. Slightly more surprising was the fact that longer articles were more e-mail worthy. (Because they were more interesting?). But the most interesting findings are also the most useful for anyone hoping to make it on the only list that matters: The researchers identified four key qualities of an article’s content which resonates on some psychic level with school-teachers, your grandmother and procrastinating college sophomores alike. The most-emailed articles are: Awe-inspiring: The quality which most helped an article reach the list was inspiring awe in the reader. That is, they blow their mind by making them contemplate something physically or intellectually enormous—a natural wonder, a work of art, a big idea, the indomitable human spirit, etc. People like to share with others their feelings of awe. (Example articles: “Fury of Girl’s Fists Lifts Up North Korean Refugee” and “The Promise and Power of RNA.” Emotional: If you want to be emailed, try tugging on a reader’s heart-strings with a weepy tale of struggle, or of redemption. They will be all “You HAVE to read this. OMG SO SAD/INSPIRING.” (Example: “Redefining Depression as Mere Sadness.”) Positive: The old newspaperman’s cliche of “if it bleeds it leads” did not hold up under our researcher’s critical eye. People like to share happy things, apparently. Surprising: Things that make you go “woah.” (i.e. a story about chickens in Harlem, or a marathon-running restaurateur.) With this science-approved information in hand, we have visually dissected the top five most e-mailed Times articles as of 11pm, Feb. 9th, 2010. Study them, for they hold the secret of “going viral”:

Read more here:
How to Get on The New York Times’ Most-Emailed List