Associate Professor Hillary Shulman’s article “Reading dies in complexity: Online news consumers prefer simple writing” was published in Science Advances.

The study explored how the use of simple headlines attract more online news readers. The research used data from over 30,000 field experiments from the Washington Post and Upworthy.

The study found that the headlines that were clicked on most by users continually scored higher on a simplicity index. 

“The Washington Post doesn’t have to turn into clickbait, but we have to acknowledge that the average user has thousands and thousands of choices of what to read - and they prefer simpler writing,” said Shulman.  

For the full press release, visit Ohio State News.