  How does the visual design of digital platforms impact user behavior and the
resulting environment? A body of work suggests that introducing social signals
to content can increase both the inequality and unpredictability of its
success, but has only been shown in the context of music listening. To further
examine the effect of social influence on media popularity, we extend this
research to the context of algorithmically-generated images by re-adapting
Salganik et al's Music Lab experiment. On a digital platform where participants
discover and curate AI-generated hybrid animals, we randomly assign both the
knowledge of other participants' behavior and the visual presentation of the
information. We successfully replicate the Music Lab's findings in the context
of images, whereby social influence leads to an unpredictable winner-take-all
market. However, we also find that social influence can lead to the emergence
of local cultural trends that diverge from the status quo and are ultimately
more diverse. We discuss the implications of these results for platform
designers and animal conservation efforts.
