We have an overriding need to “narrativise” everything, to turn it into a story – so Nicholas Nassim Taleb points out in his book The Black Swan.
It’s our way of compressing the information in the world to a manageable amount. But we overdo it: we make narratives when we have no data, we tell plausible but unfounded stories to fill gaps. So when something, for instance Harry Potter, becomes incredibly and unpredictably popular, we come up with reasons for it, even though we have no idea what the reasons are.
The real reason, incidentally, is usually that there is no reason, beyond randomness. It’s called positive feedback: a small disturbance from an equilibrium magnifies itself and causes a runaway process. The classic example is in crowds: everyone talks quietly, and everyone can hear each other, but one person speaks a little louder, so the people around have to speak a little louder to hear, until everyone is almost yelling. Then a small random dip in volume will cause people around to hush for a moment to see what’s happening, and a silence suddenly shoots around the hall.
Excerpt taken from Tom Chiver’s article in the Telegraph: “Gangnam Style at 1bn views: what does our obsession with chubby South Koreans say about society? Exactly nothing”