• New York Times, Tuesday, February 9, 2010 1:55 PM

People -- or, at least, readers of NYTimes.com -- prefer emailing articles with positive rather than negative themes, and they like to send long articles on intellectually challenging topics. Go figure. That's according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania, which was based on the New York Times' own list of most-emailed articles over a six month period.

"Perhaps most of all, readers wanted to share articles that inspired awe, an emotion that the researchers investigated after noticing how many science articles made the list," the Times says of the study. In general, the study found that 20% of articles that appeared on the Times home page made the list, but the rate rose to 30% for science articles, including ones with headlines like "The Promise and Power of RNA."

Read the whole story at New York Times »