STUDY: Readers Remember Misleading Headlines

Here at Mediabistro, we often get requests from reps to change or alter our headlines. We usually respond with annoyance, but a study featured in Fast Company yesterday explains why such demands can be very important: readers will remember a misleading headline even when they read the full article for a better understanding of the story.

The paper, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, makes a pretty basic point: headlines can be “misleading” without being incorrect — and the difference between the two is often lost on readers through no real fault of their own.

The example cited by FC concerns identical reports about the safety of genetically modified foods, one of which ran under the headline “GM Foods Are Safe” and another under “GM Foods May Pose Long-Term Health Risks.”