Did clickbait crack the code on virality?

Abstract

Although clickbait is a ubiquitous tactic in digital media, we challenge the popular belief that clickbait systematically leads to enhanced sharing of online content on social media. Using the Persuasion Knowledge Model, we predict that clickbait tactics may be perceived by some readers as a manipulative attempt, leading to source derogation where the publisher may be perceived as less competent and trustworthy. This, in turn, may reduce some readers’ intention to share content. Using a controlled experiment, we confirm that high-emotional headlines are shared more and show evidence that clickbait often leads to inferences of manipulative intent and source derogation. We then use a well-known secondary data set containing 19,386 articles from 27 leading online publishers. We supplement it with Twitter share data, sentiment analysis, topic modeling, and additional control variables. We confirm that, on average, clickbait articles elicit far fewer shares than non-clickbait articles. Our results are stable, with large effect sizes even after controlling for endogenous selection. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11747-021-00830-x.

Explaining and predicting click-baitiness and click-bait virality

“…This also provides the validity of dark behavior of social media users based on large-scale data. It also contrasts with the recent findings of Mukherjee et al. (2022) who suggest that click-baits will not lead to higher sharing.…”

“…Studies on the psychological process involved in click-bait response of the users are very limited. While some researchers have focused on the emotional response of the click-bait headline (Pengnate, 2019), others have focused on how the impact of click-baitiness on source derogation and sharing behavior of the users (Mukherjee et al, 2022). However, none of these studies focused on the drivers of clickbaitiness and the psychological process under it.…”

“…Click-baits attract a lot of traffic as they create inquisitiveness in the mind of the readers. However, very few readers are expected to share the click-bait on social media on their own as sharing click-bait may impact their status on the social networks negatively (Mukherjee et al, 2022). Click-baits are mostly shared by the ad spend by the marketers.…”

“…However, no exploration has been done on how a clickbait can become viral and what are the antecedents of such an event. Although, Mukherjee et al (2022) explored the linkage between click-baitiness and sharing of social media posts, they found that click-baits are less likely to become viral on their own as the users may understand the manipulative intent of the click-baits and will derogate the source. Therefore, their findings suggest that sharing of dark content will not happen in the context IMDS 122,11 of click-bait, which is in contrast to past literature.…”

Video Performances and Interactive Features as Contributors to Tik Tok’s Online Environment

“…The usage of social applications is slowly transforming how people think and act. As of 2019, 69% of UK teenagers (age [12][13][14][15][16][17] are on at least one social platform [2]. The aim of this research is to find out if the online environment of Tik Tok contributes to the low interactivity of UK audience and propose strategies to alleviate the negative effects.…”