I'm reading a book called "Trust Me, I'm Lying". It's about how bloggers (like myself) and the news media can be easily manipulated into making a non-story into a story. What's interesting is the history the author provides. Anyone who has seen/heard images of newsboys yelling "Extra! Extra!" know that the stories they were pedaling were often sensational and not factual. The same thing is happening today with blog post headlines - and (psychological research titles...?). The goal is to appeal to fear, anger, sex, etc. and not necessarily to report the news.
I suppose it's not a reach to see this happening in our own field. The "publish or perish" pressure leads researchers to focus on the publications and notoriety and not necessarily on truth. Most of our students are seeing these sensational blog titles and I was wondering if there was a tie-in to the chapter on Emotion. I couldn't find much really. Maybe it's all just too obvious - of course we're all attracted to anything to do with sex, and maybe fear-inducing news titles tap into our natural "loss aversion". But why are we attracted to news titles that arouse our anger or indignation? Just wondering whether the topic might be fodder for better understanding or at last a good class discussion when we get to the Emotion chapter. Michael Michael A. Britt, Ph.D. [email protected] http://www.ThePsychFiles.com Twitter: mbritt --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=20098 or send a blank email to leave-20098-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
