Emotional headlines have an impact regardless of the credibility of the source
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Re: Emotional headlines have an impact regardless of the credibility of the source
#2For me, the impact ist mostly "no, I don't want to read this if the headline is already that bad".
Re: Emotional headlines have an impact regardless of the credibility of the source
#3It’s so widely acknowledged that headlines mislead, and also that people often only read the headline. Why does the editorial practice of shitty headlines persist so strongly? It seems like journalistic integrity goes so much further with article content than article headlines, so why do they put up with it?
Re: Emotional headlines have an impact regardless of the credibility of the source
#4It has a lot of impact on me even if I try to ignore because I see so much sharing of misinformation and sources that are not even close to credible. It is especially troubling when it is from people I trust and respect and it takes a lot of self control to ignore and move along as I know arguing online about these things online hardly ever improves the situation.
Re: Emotional headlines have an impact regardless of the credibility of the source
#5Imagine that, negation of a negative has in practice no consequence.
Re: Emotional headlines have an impact regardless of the credibility of the source
#6The subjects' brain activity was recorded using an electroencephalogram (EEG) while they made judgments about the individuals. Fast, involuntary brain responses can be distinguished here from slower, more controlled responses. The researchers had expected the latter to involve consideration of the source's credibility in addition to emotion, and thus that credibility might factor into people’s judgments, whereas emotion should dominate in early and more involuntary responses. However, both late and early brain responses showed dominant influences of headline emotionality independent of credibility.
In the spirit of being critical even when we want to agree with or believe the conclusion: how "good" are these EEG studies?
I recall some scandal several years ago in which fMRI data was being promoted as far more useful than it really was, due to some buggy clustering software and maybe also p-hacking.
Are these types of results generally reproducible? How do we know they are valid?
Re: Emotional headlines have an impact regardless of the credibility of the source
#7It’s so widely acknowledged that headlines mislead, and also that people often only read the headline. Why does the editorial practice of shitty headlines persist so strongly? It seems like journalistic integrity goes so much further with article content than article headlines, so why do they put up with it?
Because it is a market optimal strategy. Since consumers express strong preference for emotional headlines, it is optimal to give them that. Consumers frequently lie that they prefer honest headlines, but that is merely a mismatch between their true beliefs and the identity they wish to project themselves as having.
One strategy for success is to be the fall guy for everything. And then be paid for it. Journalism ultimately is this: it launders views you have so that you can express them as if they were consensus views and also, it takes outrageous positions so that you can describe yourself in opposition.
Re: Emotional headlines have an impact regardless of the credibility of the source
#8"nlp works"
Re: Emotional headlines have an impact regardless of the credibility of the source
#9It’s so widely acknowledged that headlines mislead, and also that people often only read the headline. Why does the editorial practice of shitty headlines persist so strongly? It seems like journalistic integrity goes so much further with article content than article headlines, so why do they put up with it?
Because it is a market optimal strategy. Since consumers express strong preference for emotional headlines, it is optimal to give them that. Consumers frequently lie that they prefer honest headlines, but that is merely a mismatch between their true beliefs and the identity they wish to project themselves as having. One strategy for success is to be the fall guy for everything. And then be paid for it. Journalism ult…
Consumers frequently lie that they prefer honest headlines
No. "Revealed preference" is exploitation of vice, plain and simple. Addicts might honestly say they would prefer to abstain, but still relapse. The same dopamine systems are being exploited in either case.
Re: Emotional headlines have an impact regardless of the credibility of the source
#10It’s so widely acknowledged that headlines mislead, and also that people often only read the headline. Why does the editorial practice of shitty headlines persist so strongly? It seems like journalistic integrity goes so much further with article content than article headlines, so why do they put up with it?
It persists in order to get people to read the paper. This is openly acknowledged in the industry (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/09/insider/how-to-write-a-ne... ); headline writers are aiming to "[create] a mystery that can only be solved by reading further" and "reach and draw in as many people as possible", while making sure they don't "give away the ending". Journalistic integrity isn't as strong of a concern simply because it's not the journalists who write headlines.