“For a headline of average length, each additional negative word increased the click-through rate by 2.3%.”
The data comes from 22,743 Upworthy headline tests, about 105,000 variants and 370 million impressions. Positive words were more common and cut clicks. Each negative word added 2.3%. Upworthy made editors write 25 headlines per story to find the winner. Every outlet running A/B tests is breeding gloom one headline at a time.