IF IT BLEEDS IT LEADS
Why is it that headlines are so predominantly about negative news? It's a common expression that "If it bleeds it leads." Why is that?
Here are some interesting statistics.
News headlines containing negative language are more likely to be clicked on than those containing positive words. Specifically, for a headline of average length, each additional negative word increases the click-through rate by 2.3%. By contrast, for each positive word in a headline of average length, the click-through rate decreases by 1.0%.
The study found that these were the most frequent negative words in headlines:
1. Wrong
2. Bad
3. Awful
4. Hate
5. War
6. Worst
7. Sick
8. Fight
9. Scary
10. Hell
I found this in Fix the News but unfortunately I don't have the link.
It tells us a lot about how we should read the news! At the very least we need to understand what motivates news outlets, so let us be mindful.
Back to Blog