Negativity drives online news consumption

Robertson (2023) · Nature Human Behaviour · Read the paper

Robertson, Pröllochs, Schwarzenegger, Pärnamets, Van Bavel and Feuerriegel, Nature Human Behaviour 7(5), 2023, 812-822. About 105,000 headline variations in 22,743 randomised tests of a news site's headlines, roughly 5.7 million clicks. Headlines with more negative words had higher click-through rates; each added negative word raised the rate by about 2.3 per cent.

Robertson, Pröllochs, Schwarzenegger, Pärnamets, Van Bavel and Feuerriegel, Nature Human Behaviour 7(5), 2023, 812-822. About 105,000 headline variations in 22,743 randomised tests of a news site's headlines, roughly 5.7 million clicks. Headlines with more negative words had higher click-through rates; each added negative word raised the rate by about 2.3 per cent.

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Robertson, C. E., Pröllochs, N., Schwarzenegger, K., Pärnamets, P., Van Bavel, J. J., & Feuerriegel, S. (2023). Negativity drives online news consumption. Nature Human Behaviour, 7(5), 812-822. doi:10.1038/s41562-023-01538-4 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01538-4