Experimental analysis shows more engaging headlines align with prior beliefs, suggesting implications for health communication.
Whether people evaluate a claim as true or false can depend on comparative framing effects. This study examined the influence of comparative language framing (more than vs. less than) and consistency with prior beliefs on engagement with health‐related news. Participants ( N = 730) first reported their prior beliefs regarding two health‐related statements. They then saw two logically equivalent headlines framed as “more than” or “less than” and chose which of them they would they want to read. Results revealed that on average participants wanted to engage more with headlines framed as “more” and were also more likely to engage with headlines that corresponded to their prior beliefs, as predicted by confirmation bias. Our results extend the existing literature to show that comparative language framing can influence behavioral choices. The health news context of the study allows for potentially direct application to real‐world scenarios such as the wording in public health campaigns.
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Turner et al. (2025) studied this question.
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