研究：含负面词汇的标题会提高点击率

近日，研究人员分析了新闻网站上10万多个标题，似乎发现了「流量密码」。研究发现，包含负面词汇的标题会增加读者点击的概率，而含正面词汇的标题则会降低点击率。该研究发表在「Nature Human Behaviour」期刊上。

🤔️小作业：

1. catchy是什么意思？

2. bias是什么意思？

3. if it bleeds, it leads怎么理解？

无注释原文：

Bad News: Negativity Increases Online News Consumption

From: Psychology Today

A new study finds that negative words in headlines increase click-through rates.

Millions of people now get their news online. But with so much online content to consume and so little time to consume it, editors at news outlets know that writing “catchy” headlines is more important than ever. So, what makes a headline catchy? A new study published in Nature Human Behaviour found that negative emotion words in headlines made it more likely that consumers would click through and read the story. In contrast, positive emotion words decreased click rates.

The idea that people are more attentive to negative things is not a new one. Journalists have always had this intuition (captured in phrases like “if it bleeds, it leads”), and psychology studies have backed it up. People dislike losses more than they like gains, and they overweigh negative information in many contexts. Even infants pay more attention to negative stimuli. This negativity bias makes some sense from an evolutionary perspective: If you miss out on an opportunity to forage for some delicious berries, you will be sad…but if you accidentally eat a poison mushroom, you will be dead.

Given this negativity bias, do people tend to engage more with negative news content online? Previous research suggests that the answer is yes. For example, people share more content if it makes them angry. But a lot of this research has been done either in a controlled lab setting, or it has been correlational, so we can’t know for sure if negativity actually causes people to consume news more.

That’s why the dataset analyzed by Robertson and colleagues is so special. First of all, it is data on the number of clicks (“click-through rate” is the technical term) in response to >105,000 headlines on the news site Upworthy. Therefore, these are real decisions being made by real people. Moreover, Upworthy often tested out (through random assignment) different headlines for the same exact story, so they essentially ran experiments on their users. Therefore, even when the content of the news story was exactly the same, when editors put negative words like “hate” and “worst” into the headline, more people clicked on it, and when they included positive words like “love,” and “best,” fewer people clicked through.

Not only does this paper tell us more about the factors that influence online news consumption, but it also showcases the nuanced ways in which emotion influences decision-making. The researchers found that words about sadness increased click-through rates, but words about fear actually decreased them (and anger words had no significant effect). Now, we don’t know if people were actually feeling those emotions when they read the headlines, so we will need more studies to explore these effects further.

However, given that different discrete emotions might be associated with different appraisals of one’s current situation, it makes sense that not all negative emotions would have the same downstream effects on behavior. For example, previous research has shown that people are more optimistic and risk-seeking when they are angry, but they are more pessimistic and risk-averse when they are afraid.

In the future, it will be interesting to see how generalizable these findings are. For instance, this study did not look at individual differences in news consumption, and it is possible that the results would depend on the reader’s personality or age (e.g., older adults are less susceptible to negativity bias). But I’m excited about the trend of psychologists digging into real-world decision-making data to gain insights into the ways that emotion impacts decision-making.

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注：中文文本为机器翻译并非一一对应，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Bad News: Negativity Increases Online News Consumption

From: Psychology Today

A new study finds that negative words in headlines increase click-through rates.

一项新研究发现，标题中的负面词汇会提高点击率。

click-through rate /ˈklɪk.θruː ˌreɪt/ 表示“点击率”，英文解释为“a measurement of the number of people looking at an item or a page on the internet who then follow a link (= a connection between documents) to another page or website”举个🌰：

They claim click-through rates on this type of ad are up to 5 percent, which is quite high. 他们声称这类广告的点击率高达5% ，这是相当高的一个比率。

📍CTR（Click-Through Rate）即点击通过率，是互联网广告常用的术语，指网络广告（图片广告/文字广告/关键词广告/排名广告/视频广告等）的点击到达率，即该广告的实际点击次数除以广告的展现量（Show content）。（百度百科）

Millions of people now get their news online. But with so much online content to consume and so little time to consume it, editors at news outlets know that writing “catchy” headlines is more important than ever. So, what makes a headline catchy? A new study published in Nature Human Behaviour found that negative emotion words in headlines made it more likely that consumers would click through and read the story. In contrast, positive emotion words decreased click rates.

现在，数百万人都在网上获取新闻。但由于需要消费大量的在线内容，而时间又很有限，因此新闻编辑知道，编写“吸引人”的标题比以往任何时候都更加重要。那么，什么样的标题才会吸引人呢？发表在《Nature Human Behaviour》期刊上的一项新研究发现，新闻标题中的负面情绪词汇会增加读者点击并阅读该报道的可能性，相反，正面情绪词汇则会降低点击率。

The idea that people are more attentive to negative things is not a new one. Journalists have always had this intuition (captured in phrases like “if it bleeds, it leads”), and psychology studies have backed it up. People dislike losses more than they like gains, and they overweigh negative information in many contexts. Even infants pay more attention to negative stimuli. This negativity bias makes some sense from an evolutionary perspective: If you miss out on an opportunity to forage for some delicious berries, you will be sad…but if you accidentally eat a poison mushroom, you will be dead.

人们对负面事物更加关注，这并不是什么新鲜事。记者们一直有这种直觉（体现在“只要流血，就能上头条”这样的短语中），而心理学研究也证实了这一点。人们对遭受损失的厌恶超过了对获得收益的喜爱，并且在许多情况下会过度重视负面信息。甚至婴儿也会对负面刺激给予更多关注。从进化的角度来看，这种负面倾向性是有一定道理的：如果你错过了采摘美味浆果的机会，你会感到难过……但是如果你不小心吃了毒蘑菇，你就完蛋了。

attentive /əˈten.tɪv/ 表示“注意的；留心的；认真倾听的；专心的”，英文解释为“listening or watching carefully and with interest”如：an attentive audience 全神贯注的听众。

表示“直觉；直觉力”，英文解释为“(knowledge from) an ability to understand or know something immediately based on your feelings rather than facts”

1）表示“赢得；获得，取得”，英文解释为“to succeed in getting something when you are competing with other people”举个🌰：

They captured 80 percent of the vote. 他们获得了80%的选票。

2）表示“（用文字或图象）表现，描绘，刻画”，英文解释为“to represent or describe something very accurately using words or images”举个🌰：

It would be impossible to capture her beauty in a painting. 她的美无法用画笔描绘。

3）表示“拍摄，摄制”，英文解释为“to record or take a picture of something using a camera”举个🌰：

A passer-by captured the whole incident on film. 一位路人拍摄下了事件的全过程。

1）表示“短语”，英文解释为“a group of words that is part of, rather than the whole of, a sentence”。

2）表示“说法；用语；警句”，英文解释为“a short group of words that are often used together and have a particular meaning”

bleed /bliːd/ 表示“出血，流血”，英文解释为“to lose blood”举个🌰：

Your arm is bleeding. 你的胳膊在流血。

据ChatGPT，「if it bleeds, it leads」是新闻报道行业的一种说法，指的是新闻媒体通常更倾向于报道暴力、血腥、恐怖、悲惨等负面事件，因为这些新闻更能引起公众的兴趣和关注，从而吸引更多的读者和观众。这个短语意味着新闻媒体更愿意报道能够引起情感共鸣和轰动效应的新闻，而非那些缺乏吸引力的新闻。

表示“婴儿”，英文解释为“a baby or a very young child”。

📍newborn一般作形容词，表示“新生的”，如：a newborn infant 新生儿。

很有意思的一个词，单数 stimulus /ˈstɪmjʊləs/，复数 stimuli /ˈstɪm.jʊ.laɪ/，没错有s的是单数。表示“刺激（物），激励（物）；促进因素”，英文解释为“something that causes growth or activity; something that causes part of the body to react”。

表示“偏见；偏心；偏向”，英文解释为“a strong feeling in favour of or against one group of people, or one side in an argument, often not based on fair judgement”举个🌰：

Employers must consider all candidates impartially and without bias. 雇主必须公平而毫无成见地考虑所有求职者。

1）表示“进化的”，英文解释为“relating to the way in which living things develop over millions of years”

2）表示“演变的；逐步发展的”，英文解释为“involving a gradual process of change and development”

表示“（思考问题的）角度，观点，想法”，英文解释为“a particular way of considering something”举个🌰：

Her attitude lends a fresh perspective to the subject. 她的态度为这一问题提供了新的视角。

poison /ˈpɔɪ.zən/ 表示“毒；毒药，毒物”，英文解释为“a substance that can make people or animals ill or kill them if they eat or drink it”

Given this negativity bias, do people tend to engage more with negative news content online? Previous research suggests that the answer is yes. For example, people share more content if it makes them angry. But a lot of this research has been done either in a controlled lab setting, or it has been correlational, so we can’t know for sure if negativity actually causes people to consume news more.

考虑到这种负面倾向性，人们在网上是否更倾向于关注负面新闻内容呢？先前的研究表明，答案是肯定的。例如，如果某内容让人感到愤怒，人们会更愿意分享它。但是很多研究要么是在受控的实验室环境中进行的，要么是相关性研究，因此我们无法确定负面词汇是否真的会导致人们消费更多新闻。

表示“互为相关；相关性的”，英文解释为“the state or relation of being correlated.”

That’s why the dataset analyzed by Robertson and colleagues is so special. First of all, it is data on the number of clicks (“click-through rate” is the technical term) in response to >105,000 headlines on the news site Upworthy. Therefore, these are real decisions being made by real people. Moreover, Upworthy often tested out (through random assignment) different headlines for the same exact story, so they essentially ran experiments on their users. Therefore, even when the content of the news story was exactly the same, when editors put negative words like “hate” and “worst” into the headline, more people clicked on it, and when they included positive words like “love,” and “best,” fewer people clicked through.

这就是罗伯逊（Robertson）及其同事所分析的数据集如此特别的原因。首先，这是新闻网站Upworthy上10.5万多个新闻标题点击次数（专业术语“点击率”）的数据。因此，这些都是真人做出的真实反馈。此外，Upworthy经常（通过随机分配）为相同的报道测试不同的标题，所以他们实际上是在用户中进行实验。因此，即使新闻报道的内容完全相同，当编辑在标题中加入像“仇恨”和“最差”等负面词汇时，更多的人会点击它，而当标题包含像“爱”和“最好”等正面词汇时，点击率会降低。

Not only does this paper tell us more about the factors that influence online news consumption, but it also showcases the nuanced ways in which emotion influences decision-making. The researchers found that words about sadness increased click-through rates, but words about fear actually decreased them (and anger words had no significant effect). Now, we don’t know if people were actually feeling those emotions when they read the headlines, so we will need more studies to explore these effects further.

这篇论文不仅告诉我们更多关于影响在线新闻消费的因素，还展示了情绪影响决策的微妙方式。研究人员发现，与悲伤相关的词汇会增加点击率，但与恐惧相关的词汇会降低点击率（而愤怒的词汇则没有显著影响）。现在，我们不知道人们在阅读标题时是否真的感受到这些情绪，因此我们需要更多的研究来进一步探索这些影响。

表示“展示…的优点；充分展示”，英文解释为“to show the best qualities or parts of something”举个🌰：

The main aim of the exhibition is to showcase British design. 该展览的主要目的是一展英国设计的风采。

nuanced /ˈnjuː.ɑːnst/ 形容词，是由它的名词nuance /njuːˈɑːns/派生而来，表示“（在外表、意义、感觉、声音等上）有细微差別的”举个🌰：

Opinion polls tell a more nuanced story. 民意调查中可以发现更微妙的结果。

However, given that different discrete emotions might be associated with different appraisals of one’s current situation, it makes sense that not all negative emotions would have the same downstream effects on behavior. For example, previous research has shown that people are more optimistic and risk-seeking when they are angry, but they are more pessimistic and risk-averse when they are afraid.

然而，鉴于不同的单一情绪可能与个人当前状况的不同评估有关，因此，并非所有的负面情绪都会对行为产生相同的后续影响，这也是有道理的。例如，以前的研究表明，人们在生气时更加乐观、更喜欢冒险，但在害怕时更加悲观、更不愿冒险。

表示“独立的，各自的，单独的；离散的”，英文解释为“clearly separate or different in shape or form”举个🌰：

These small companies now have their own discrete identity. 这些小公司现在都各有各的特点。

appraisal /əˈpreɪ.zəl/ 表示“评定；鉴定；估价；评价”，英文解释为“the act of examining someone or something in order to judge their qualities, success, or needs”

downstream /ˌdaʊnˈstriːm/ 1）表示“顺流（地），向下游（地）”，英文解释为“in the direction a river or stream is flowing”举个🌰：

The current carried her downstream. 水流将她冲向下游。

2）表示“后阶段（地）”，英文解释为“used to describe something that happens later in a process or series of events”

pessimistic /ˌpes.ɪˈmɪs.tɪk/ 表示“悲观的”，英文解释为“thinking that bad things are more likely to happen or emphasizing the bad part of a situation”举个🌰：

The tone of the meeting was very pessimistic. 会议的气氛非常悲观。

risk-averse /ˈrɪsk.əˌvɜːs/ 表示“不愿意承担风险的，尽量避免冒险的”，英文解释为“unwilling to take risks or wanting to avoid risks as much as possible”举个🌰：

He feels modern attitudes to children's play are too restrictive and risk-averse. 他觉得当代对孩子玩耍的态度过于限制和逃避风险。

In the future, it will be interesting to see how generalizable these findings are. For instance, this study did not look at individual differences in news consumption, and it is possible that the results would depend on the reader’s personality or age (e.g., older adults are less susceptible to negativity bias). But I’m excited about the trend of psychologists digging into real-world decision-making data to gain insights into the ways that emotion impacts decision-making.

将来，看看这些发现能否具有普适性将会很有趣。例如，这项研究没有考虑个体在新闻消费方面的差异，而结果可能会取决于读者的性格或年龄（例如，老年人不太容易受到负面情绪倾向性的影响）。不过，对于心理学家挖掘现实世界的决策数据，以深入了解情绪影响决策方式的趋势，我感到很兴奋。

表示“可归纳的；可概括性；可推广的;”，英文解释为“able to be made more widely or generally applicable”

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