UnPeeled

The news is designed to make you afraid. That is not a conspiracy theory, it is a business model. Researchers at the University of Michigan analyzed over 105,000 variations of news headlines generating more than 370 million impressions and found that for every additional negative word in a headline, the click-through rate increased by 2.3%. Positive words had the opposite effect, each one decreased clicks by 1%. Fear sells. Outrage sells. Anxiety keeps people coming back