Linguistic effects on news headline success: Evidence from thousands of online field experiments (Registered Report).
What makes written text appealing? In this registered report, we study the linguistic characteristics of news headline success using a large-scale dataset of field experiments (A/B tests) conducted on the popular website Upworthy.com comparing multiple headline variants for the same news articles. T...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2023-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281682 |
| _version_ | 1797843082725556224 |
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| author | Kristina Gligorić George Lifchits Robert West Ashton Anderson |
| author_facet | Kristina Gligorić George Lifchits Robert West Ashton Anderson |
| author_sort | Kristina Gligorić |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | What makes written text appealing? In this registered report, we study the linguistic characteristics of news headline success using a large-scale dataset of field experiments (A/B tests) conducted on the popular website Upworthy.com comparing multiple headline variants for the same news articles. This unique setup allows us to control for factors that could otherwise have important confounding effects on headline success. Based on the prior literature and an exploratory portion of the data, we formulated hypotheses about the linguistic features associated with statistically superior headlines, previously published as a registered report protocol. Here, we report the findings based on a much larger portion of the data that became available after the publication of our registered report protocol. Our registered findings contribute to resolving competing hypotheses about the linguistic features that affect the success of text and provide avenues for research into the psychological mechanisms that are activated by those features. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T16:58:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fd938ddd2f7a4c998ccfe907d876d456 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T16:58:44Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-fd938ddd2f7a4c998ccfe907d876d4562023-04-21T05:34:30ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032023-01-01183e028168210.1371/journal.pone.0281682Linguistic effects on news headline success: Evidence from thousands of online field experiments (Registered Report).Kristina GligorićGeorge LifchitsRobert WestAshton AndersonWhat makes written text appealing? In this registered report, we study the linguistic characteristics of news headline success using a large-scale dataset of field experiments (A/B tests) conducted on the popular website Upworthy.com comparing multiple headline variants for the same news articles. This unique setup allows us to control for factors that could otherwise have important confounding effects on headline success. Based on the prior literature and an exploratory portion of the data, we formulated hypotheses about the linguistic features associated with statistically superior headlines, previously published as a registered report protocol. Here, we report the findings based on a much larger portion of the data that became available after the publication of our registered report protocol. Our registered findings contribute to resolving competing hypotheses about the linguistic features that affect the success of text and provide avenues for research into the psychological mechanisms that are activated by those features.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281682 |
| spellingShingle | Kristina Gligorić George Lifchits Robert West Ashton Anderson Linguistic effects on news headline success: Evidence from thousands of online field experiments (Registered Report). PLoS ONE |
| title | Linguistic effects on news headline success: Evidence from thousands of online field experiments (Registered Report). |
| title_full | Linguistic effects on news headline success: Evidence from thousands of online field experiments (Registered Report). |
| title_fullStr | Linguistic effects on news headline success: Evidence from thousands of online field experiments (Registered Report). |
| title_full_unstemmed | Linguistic effects on news headline success: Evidence from thousands of online field experiments (Registered Report). |
| title_short | Linguistic effects on news headline success: Evidence from thousands of online field experiments (Registered Report). |
| title_sort | linguistic effects on news headline success evidence from thousands of online field experiments registered report |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281682 |
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