What makes people click?

Researchers analyze online news preferences

2013-06-18

(Press-News.org) A new study has analysed tens of thousands of articles available to readers of online news and created a model to find out 'what makes people click'.

The researchers developed a model of "news appeal" based on the words contained in an article's title and text intro, which is what a reader uses when they choose to click on a story.

The study by academics at the University of Bristol's Intelligent Systems Laboratory is published in a series of publications.

The aim of the study was to model the reading preferences for the audiences of 14 online news outlets using machine learning techniques. The models, describing the appeal of an article to each audience, were developed by linear functions of word frequencies. The models compared articles that became "most popular" on a given day in a given outlet with articles that did not.

The research, led by Nello Cristianini, Professor of Artificial Intelligence, identified the most attractive keywords, as well as the least attractive ones, and explained the choices readers made.

The team created a model for each user group they had data on, including the BBC's online news, Forbes and Australian newspapers.

After scoring articles by reader preferences, the researchers then ranked the articles by their appeal, and studied what might explain the choices made by online readers.

Professor Cristianini, speaking about the research, said: "We found significant inverse correlations between the appeal to users and the amount of attention devoted to public affairs.

"People are put off by public affairs and attracted by entertainment, crime, and other non-public affairs topics."

The researchers examined millions of article pairs, collected over nearly eighteen months. The models analysed user choices, choices were then used to compare both the audiences and the contents of various news outlets.

The researchers found that there is a significant correlation between the demographic profiles of audiences and their preferences. They also found that content appeal is related both to writing style - with more sentimentally charged language being preferred, and to content with "public affairs" topics, such as "finance" and "politics", being less preferred.

### Paper: Modelling and Explaining Online News Preferences, Elena Hensinger, Ilias Flaounas, Nello Cristianini, In Collection: Pattern Recognition - Applications and Methods, Springer Berlin Heidelberg. END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Huddersfield researcher publishes a study of psychopathy and criminal behavior

2013-06-18

University of Huddersfield researcher, Dr Daniel Boduszek, has co authored a an article in the Journal of Ciminal Psychology that analyses the relationship between psycopathy and criminal behaviour. The paper provides a critical review of psychopathy literature, with a particular focus on recent research examining the relationship between psychopathy and various forms of criminal behaviour. The results indicate that substantial empirical research exists to suggest that psychopathy is a robust predictor of criminal behaviour and recidivism. Furthermore, considerable ...

Gel or whitening? Consumer choice and product organization

2013-06-18

Consumers choose lower-priced products and are more satisfied with their purchase when products are organized by benefits instead of features, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "It matters whether products are organized by features or benefits. Simply changing the way the same set of products is organized impacts how consumers process information and make choices," write authors Cait Poynor Lamberton (University of Pittsburgh) and Kristin Diehl (University of Southern California). Consumers frequently shop for products that have been organized ...

Beliefs about causes of obesity may impact weight, eating behavior

2013-06-18

Whether a person believes obesity is caused by overeating or by a lack of exercise predicts his or her actual body mass, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Obesity has become a pressing public health issue in recent years, with two-thirds of U.S. adults classified as overweight or obese and similar trends unfolding in many developed nations. Researchers Brent McFerran of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and Anirban Mukhopadhyay of Hong Kong University of Science ...

Parenting and home environment influence children's exercise and eating habits

2013-06-18

DURHAM, N.C. -- Kids whose moms encourage them to exercise and eat well, and model those healthy behaviors themselves, are more likely to be active and healthy eaters, according to researchers at Duke Medicine. Their findings, published online in the International Journal of Obesity on June 18, 2013, remind parents that they are role models for their children, and underscore the importance of parental policies promoting physical activity and healthy eating. Exercise and healthy diets are critical in fighting childhood obesity, a considerable problem in the United States, ...

New concussion data: 2 biomarkers better than 1

2013-06-18

Scientists are scrambling to gather data for the FDA to support the need for a blood test to diagnose brain injury in the United States. The University of Rochester Medical Center just added significant evidence by reporting in the Journal of Neurotrauma that it might be clinically useful to measure two brain biomarkers instead of one. Jeffrey J. Bazarian, M.D., M.P.H., an associate professor of Emergency Medicine at URMC, believes he's the first to show that measuring a combination of two proteins released into the bloodstream after a head injury might be the best way ...

Herbal extract boosts fruit fly lifespan by nearly 25 percent, UCI study finds

2013-06-18

Irvine, Calif., June 18, 2013 — The herbal extract of a yellow-flowered mountain plant long used for stress relief was found to increase the lifespan of fruit fly populations by an average of 24 percent, according to UC Irvine researchers. But it's how Rhodiola rosea, also known as golden root, did this that grabbed the attention of study leaders Mahtab Jafari and Sam Schriner. They discovered that Rhodiola works in a manner completely unrelated to dietary restriction and affects different molecular pathways. This is significant, said Jafari, associate professor of ...

Small dam construction to reduce greenhouse emissions is causing ecosystem disruption

2013-06-18

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers conclude in a new report that a global push for small hydropower projects, supported by various nations and also the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, may cause unanticipated and potentially significant losses of habitat and biodiversity. An underlying assumption that small hydropower systems pose fewer ecological concerns than large dams is not universally valid, scientists said in the report. A five-year study, one of the first of its type, concluded that for certain environmental impacts the cumulative damage caused by ...

Tackling a framework for surgical innovation

2013-06-18

NEW YORK (June 18, 2013)-- An international team of investigators co-led by Weill Cornell Medical College is offering a new framework for evidence-based surgery and device research, similar to the kind of risk and benefit analysis used in evidence-based medicine. "Currently, there is no dynamic research framework to systematically detect devices and surgeries that don't offer any benefits to patients or may even be harmful," says co-lead investigator Dr. Art Sedrakyan of Weill Cornell Medical College. In the June 18 issue of the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Dr. Sedrakyan ...

ACS NSQIP® data is more accurate than administrative data for tracking 30-day hospital readmissions

2013-06-18

Chicago (June 18, 2013): With Medicare penalties on hospitals with higher-than-expected rates of 30-day readmissions expected to rise in 2014, more hospitals are evaluating the most accurate methods for tracking readmissions of patients. A new study appearing in the June issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons finds that the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program® (ACS NSQIP®) led to more accurate data tracking than another popular database, the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), for tracking 30-day hospital readmissions ...

Atherosclerosis in abdominal aorta may predict adverse cardiovascular events, UTSW scientists report

2013-06-18

DALLAS – June 18, 2013 – Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of aortic atherosclerosis can predict the risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular events in otherwise healthy individuals, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. The investigation, published in the June issue of Radiology, is the first large-scale study to evaluate the predictive value of MRI measures of aortic atherosclerosis for future cardiac events. Using MRI, researchers at UT Southwestern were able to measure in thousands of participants very subtle but highly significant differences ...

First-in-human study of once-daily oral treatment for obesity that mimics metabolic effects of gastric bypass without surgery

Rural preschoolers more likely to be living with overweight and abdominal obesity, and spend more time on screens, than their urban counterparts

Half of popular TikToks about “food noise” mention medications, mainly weight-loss drugs, to manage intrusive thoughts about food

Global survey reveals high disconnect between perceptions of obesity among people living with the disease and their doctors

Study reveals distinct mechanisms of action of tirzepatide and semaglutide

Mount Sinai Health System to honor Dennis S. Charney, MD, Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, for 18 years of leadership and service at annual Crystal Party  

What makes people click?

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: