[Produce]

>I find it interesting that I was downvoted to the negatives, then you posted this reply, and then I got upvoted to the top. I wonder what the causation is there.

Take this as a sign that HN is going the way of Digg and Reddit, may they rest in peace.

As for the mechanism of action, I think it has to do with people having the need to feel special. The crowd does A, a lonely voice suggests B and people jump on the bandwagon to be different. In other words, it's a mild and misplaced rebellion against the status quo. I've seen this happen countless times on social news sites and it seems to be one of the glitches of the human brain. Follow the white rabbit...