Affective Information Epidemiology

This working paper proposes a falsifiable cybernetic-biopsychological model of digital information diffusion in engagement-based platform ecologies. It formalizes the viral resonance of information vectors as a function of network-structural baseline infectivity, affective activation, uncertainty induction, moral loading, confirmation fit, social signaling, cognitive reflection, cognitive density, epistemic constraint, perceived control, and platform amplification. The central claim is that epistemically unconstrained information may gain a structural replication advantage under engagement-optimized conditions because it can be optimized more freely for affective intensity, identity fit, moral simplification, and reactive engagement. The paper does not report original empirical data. Its contribution is a theoretical model architecture with operational variables, falsifiable hypotheses, inverse modeling logic, validation pathways, and intervention concepts such as epistemic-affective