Programming for Attention: Personality Traits and Headline Selection

Previous research has suggested that personality traits may play a role in individuals' selection of news headlines. However, the specific relationship between personality traits and headline sentiment scoring has not been thoroughly investigated. I used sentiment analysis, a form of natural language processing used to find the intended affective state of a sentence or phrase, to address this gap. I hypothesized that people higher in the openness personality trait would select headlines with more-extreme sentiment scoring. 223 participants first completed a Big Five personality test, and then were presented with 10 pages of news headlines, each containing four headlines differing in sentiment score. On each page, participants were asked to select the headline they would be most likely to read. Results indicated that people higher in openness were more likely to choose headlines with higher sentiment. These findings provide valuable insights into the relationship between personality traits and news consumption behavior, with specific implications for news outlets who seek to engage a wider audience. By understanding the relationship between personality traits and headline selection, news providers can better tailor their content to the preferences of their target audience.