Ever catch yourself endlessly scrolling through news on your phone but realize you haven't actually read anything? You're not alone. This "hyperconnected yet mentally checked out" paradox is at the heart of a fascinating new study exploring how mood, interactivity, and article length influence our news engagement on those tiny screens.
On this episode of Marketing Science Lab, we're dissecting a research paper titled "News Reading on Smartphones: How do mood, modality interactivity, and news story length influence news engagement?". The researchers behind this study had a unique test group: 330 college students, a generation practically glued to their smartphones (Wang, 2024).
Instead of scrolling through TikTok, these students were tasked with reading about...viruses. Specifically, Zika and West Nile, topics chosen to be relevant to a younger audience without being overly emotional.
Mood Matters: From Happy Scrolling to Doomscrolling
Before diving into the news, the researchers cleverly manipulated the participants' moods. One group was asked to write about a really happy event from their life, while the other group wrote about a sad one. This simple exercise effectively shifted their moods, setting the stage for the experiment.
The results? Well, they're more nuanced than you might think.
Good Mood, Long Articles: Participants in a good mood found longer articles more "usable" than shorter ones. This seems counterintuitive; wouldn't a happy mood make you want to skim and zip around more? The researchers suggest that when we're happy and scrolling, we tend to skim more and not do as much deep reading, making longer articles less intimidating.
Bad Mood, Short Articles: Conversely, when participants were in a bad mood, they found shorter articles more usable. It seems our attention spans shrink even further when we're feeling down, feeding into the phenomenon of "doomscrolling" – that tendency to get glued to negative news when we're already down.
Scrolling vs. Swiping: It's Not That Simple
We all love the satisfying swipe, but does it actually lead to better engagement? The study found that swiping was only more engaging when people were in a good mood and reading longer articles. For shorter articles or when people were in a neutral or negative mood, good old-fashioned scrolling actually won out.
It seems our brains are running these complex calculations in the background, factoring in our mood and how the information is presented. Who knew something as simple as scrolling versus swiping could make such a difference?
The Clickbait Effect: Happily Hooked
But the researchers didn't just look at engagement; they also looked at how people judged the news. This is where things get really interesting.
Remember how those in a good mood found longer articles more usable? Well, they also rated those same articles as both more biased and more current. Talk about a head-scratcher!
It seems that when we're in a positive mood, happily scrolling through those longer reads, we're less likely to critically question the information. Our inner skeptic takes a nap, leaving us vulnerable to clickbait headlines that hook us in when we're feeling optimistic.
Takeaways for the Mindful Scroller
So, what's the solution? Toss our phones in a river and get all our news from carrier pigeons? Probably not.
It's all about awareness. Pay attention to your state of mind when you're consuming news. If you're feeling stressed or down, maybe take a break before getting sucked into those negative news bites. And if you're in a great mood and enjoying those longer reads, take a second to double-check the source and consider other perspectives.
Ultimately, we need to become our own fact-checkers, particularly in this world of 24/7 news and endless notifications. This research focused on news, but it gets you thinking about all the content we consume – social media, work emails, even texts with friends. Could our mood and how information is presented be impacting those interactions, too?
It's something to ponder. Our phones have become extensions of ourselves, but we can't forget they can subtly shape our thoughts and feelings. Here's to being more mindful scrollers!
Interactive Study Guide: https://quizlet.com/study-guides/mood-and-news-consumption-scrolling-vs-doomscrolling-8303e076-443f-475c-9892-3adfd883a342?i=3i62em&x=13qt
Source:
Wang, R., & Haigh, M. (2024). News reading on smartphones: How do mood, modality interactivity, and news story length influence news engagement? Behaviour & Information Technology, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2024.2306483
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