Negativity drives online news consumption

TLDR

Online media shapes society by informing and shaping opinions, raising questions about what drives news consumption. The study examines the causal effect of negative and emotional words on online news consumption. Using 22,743 randomized controlled trials on roughly 105,000 Upworthy headlines that generated 5.7 million clicks from 370 million impressions, the authors assessed headline word effects. Negative words in headlines raise click‑through rates by about 2.3 % per word, while positive words lower rates, indicating that negativity drives online news consumption.

Abstract

Abstract Online media is important for society in informing and shaping opinions, hence raising the question of what drives online news consumption. Here we analyse the causal effect of negative and emotional words on news consumption using a large online dataset of viral news stories. Specifically, we conducted our analyses using a series of randomized controlled trials ( N = 22,743). Our dataset comprises ~105,000 different variations of news stories from Upworthy.com that generated ∼5.7 million clicks across more than 370 million overall impressions. Although positive words were slightly more prevalent than negative words, we found that negative words in news headlines increased consumption rates (and positive words decreased consumption rates). For a headline of average length, each additional negative word increased the click-through rate by 2.3%. Our results contribute to a better understanding of why users engage with online media.