What happens after a TikTok has gone viral?

In his excellently titled job market paper “Paying attention”, Karthik Srinivasan shows (among other things) that after publishing a TikTok that gets more than 100 likes, users post on average 0.4 more TikToks per day. As shown in Figure 1, the effect is lasting: it lasts at least 30 days.

A possible interpretation of this result is that attention attracts attention: TikTok users who receive attention through a viral video seek to get more attention by posting more videos.

The job market paper identifies a similar effect on Reddit.

Via Devin Pope on X.

Bibliography

Srinivasan, Karthik. 2023. “Paying Attention.” Job Market Paper. https://www.karthiksrinivasan.org.