You might’ve come across headlines that seemingly offer sensationalist information but might taper off or remain vague. These are typically what media researchers refer to as ‘clickbait’ headlines. Specifically, these headlines are intentionally framed to attract reader attention, and ultimately some user engagement (especially if seen on a social media platform). There are two aspects of clickbait that this article considers: why do we engage with content that can be characterized as clickbait; and why do clickbait content remain pervasive on all media platforms (especially web news and social media).
Why we engage with clickbait:
Our brains are wired for novelty and unexpected stimuli - like when you spot a new product in a grocery store or a new accessory a friend or loved one is wearing. In the modern digital landscape, where information is abundant and easily accessible, this instinctive response to novelty can be exploited. Clickbait cleverly taps into the brain's love for surprise, capitalizing on the dopamine release that occurs when we encounter something unexpected. The promise of a surprising revelation or intriguing information triggers the brain's pleasure response, creating an immediate sense of gratification - like when the plot twist in a movie is finally revealed.
Clickbait, as a strategy, revolves around creating headlines that promise something novel, sensational, or unexpected. These headlines are meticulously crafted to pique our curiosity and trigger the release of dopamine, exploiting the pleasure center of our brains. By presenting incomplete or intriguing information, clickbait articles create a cognitive dissonance—a gap between what we know and what we want to know. This information gap becomes a psychological itch that can only be scratched by clicking on the link and filling in the missing pieces.
The language used in clickbait headlines often employs hyperbole, posing questions, or making bold claims to heighten the element of surprise. Phrases like "Shocking revelations exposed" are designed to stimulate our natural curiosity and leverage it by presenting headlines that intentionally provoke questions or promise exclusive information. The allure of the unknown, combined with the promise of a pleasurable dopamine rush, makes clickbait an effective tool for capturing our attention in a crowded digital space.
Clickbait also creates a sense of urgency or exclusivity in its headlines. The fear that others might be privy to valuable or sensational information prompts individuals to click impulsively, driven by the desire to stay in the loop and not miss out on a trending topic. This taps into our fear of being left behind and compels us to act quickly before the opportunity vanishes. Even when skepticism about the authenticity of the information arises, the fear of missing out can override rational thinking, leading to impulsive clicks driven by the need to be part of the conversation. For example, a headline that screams “Government announces new rules for income tax, check if you are eligible” draws users to click by priming fear.
Clickbait doesn’t even spare our emotions. Clickbait content spans a wide spectrum of emotions, from heartwarming and inspirational narratives to infuriating and shocking revelations. By strategically framing headlines to evoke emotional responses, clickbait creators seek to forge a direct connection with the audience's feelings. Heartwarming clickbait often features uplifting stories, feel-good moments, or tales of triumph over adversity. These narratives trigger positive emotions such as joy, empathy, and hope, creating a sense of emotional attachment to the content. On the flip side, clickbaits that elicit anger, shock, or outrage exploit our negative emotional responses, compelling us to engage with the content in an attempt to process or validate our emotional reactions.
Clickbait creators understand that content triggering strong emotional reactions is more likely to be shared widely across social media. The act of sharing becomes a means for individuals to express and amplify their emotional responses, creating a ripple effect that extends the reach of the clickbait content. The shareability of emotionally charged clickbait is further amplified by the algorithms of social media platforms, which prioritize content with higher engagement rates. As users interact with and share emotionally resonant clickbait, these platforms recognize the content's popularity and boost its visibility, perpetuating a cycle of increased engagement.
Why clickbait dominates in media:
A major aspect of clickbait headlines when seen on social media platforms is that they are inextricably linked to user engagement, and therefore platform optimization algorithms. Simply put, clickbait headlines get a lot of attention and user engagement (for the reasons discussed above), and therefore helps a social media platform retain users for longer (or have them keep coming back. A successful social media platform (in terms of revenues) is one that has the most user engagement, and the cycle of reliance on clickbait continues in part due to this perverse incentive.
It’s also worth looking at research that statistically shows which type of clickbait headlines are likely to elicit more engagement. For example, research with Facebook’s URLs dataset suggests that headlines with unusual punctuation marks, whereas those with question marks (or posts that ask questions in the headline) appear to have no association with engagement metrics. In fact, the authors find that commonly used clickbait cliches actually reduced engagement (e.g., “this will blow your mind!”) as users may grow wary of such headlines as being uninformative or sensationalist. This raises the more fundamental question of what exactly we can consider to be clickbait and whether this can be captured through user engagement metrics or only by relying on the content, syntax, or style of the headline. This is precisely what a team of media researchers and information scientists study using three experiments. Among other important findings, they argue that curiosity is not driving the increased engagement that clickbait titles may rely on, but instead may be affected by a lack of clarity on exactly what constitutes different aspects of clickbait headlines.
Other ways to user engagement:
It would appear that the continuing prevalence of clickbait headlines in today’s media is a function of how platform incentives are misaligned with user preferences. If, as users, we know that clickbait posts or articles are misleading or contain misinformation, then it only makes sense that platforms work toward cutting out clickbait from our newsfeeds. But how do they do this without affecting user engagement? Research has suggested a wide range of measures using experimental evidence to enhance user engagement without resorting to clickbait. These include (but are not limited to) providing social or expert signals on usefulness of posts, crowdsourcing content that users would like to engage with, changing the sequence of content presentation dynamically, and in certain cases, even financial payments.
A large part of tackling clickbait comes from the fact that platforms still have a very limited understanding of how to design for users who are susceptible to things like clickbait. As noted behavioural economist and (now) AI researcher Sendhil Mullainathan and colleagues suggest, a platform’s assumptions about what users will engage with relies too much on the “revealed preference” approach and not enough on actual user preferences (which are harder to capture or measure). Thus, in a world where more content (or more clickbait content) actual drives user utility (or happiness) down, platforms need to correct for this and consider that users themselves are subject to a wide range of biases and inconsistencies when dealing with information. The other way, of course, is to undertake media literacy interventions regularly to tackle how users engage with clickbait. Indeed, there is promising evidence that such interventions work in both qualitative and quantitative studies. Hopefully, we can look forward to a world without clickbait in the near future.
Anirudh Tagat and Zarnab Zahoor
