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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 is the fact that longer articles were more e-mail-worthy. But the most fascinating findings are also the most useful for anyone hoping to make it on the only list that matters, journalism-wise. The researchers identified four key qualities of an article which resonate on some psychic level with school-teachers, your mother and procrastinating college sophomores alike. Most-emailed articles are: Awe-inspiring: Being ‘awe-inspiring’ was the quality which most improved the odds of an item making the list. These articles blow readers’ minds by helping 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 an awe-inspiring New York Times article so they can forget their own puniness long enough to make it through the workday.. (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. Before you know it, their son will be deleting an email from them with the subject “You HAVE to read this. SO SAD.” (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: Unsurprisingly, people like to share articles that are surprising. Think, 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 Internet immortality:

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How to Make The New York Times’ Most-Emailed List