Hooked at First Glance: How Paratextual Narrative Hooks Drive Viewing Interest in Tourism Short Videos

This study examines how Paratextual Narrative Hooks (PNHs) relate to initial viewing interest in tourism short videos. Using “like density” as a behavioral proxy for revealed viewing interest, a multi-method analysis of 10,158 Douyin videos shows that PNHs across technological, media, and ecological layers are positively associated with this proxy. Key drivers include visual aesthetics, emotional cues, recency, and shareability. Effects are content-type dependent: affective-hedonic content relies on aesthetic and emotional appeal, whereas informational-utilitarian content depends on timeliness and utility. Furthermore, fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) reveals three equifinal pathways to high interest: algorithmic-diffusion linkage, aesthetic-affective immersion, and informational-emotional blend with social amplification. Theoretically, the study introduces a three-layer PNHs framework grounded in media ecology theory, shifting attention to pre-click narrative construction, and demonstrates equifinality in pre-click attention capture through configurational analysis. Managerially, this study offers practitioners three actionable pathways to capture pre-click attention.