The Scientific Guide to Creating Sticky Headlines - 0 views
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According to Social Triggers and Wired Magazine, George Lowenstien, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University developed a theory called “the information gap theory of curiosity.” Lowenstein says “curiosity is rather simple: It comes when we feel a gap ‘between what we know and what we want to know.’” (source) He goes on to say “This gap has emotional consequences: it feels like a mental itch, a mosquito bite on the brain. We seek out new knowledge because we that’s how we scratch the itch.” That’s why these headline formulas increase traffic.
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Imagine again that you’re a blogger looking to leverage Facebook. You begin to click on multiple posts titled “How to get more traffic using Facebook” and bunch of other variations. What happens? All of the posts begin to run together becoming indecipherable to your brain. Psychologists call this cognitive overload and you passively read post after post after post. You never truly connect with the blogger or the message.
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By adding a quantifiable benefit, you’re accomplishing two things. First you’re laser targeting the type of reader you want to see the post. And second, you’re giving them a realistic goal to strive for.
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This is a good list and also explains the "whys" of it.