Our findings reveal that news media companies have an incentive to produce news headlines containing out-group derogation to maximize engagement, which may, in turn, heighten animosity between groups.
This was led by @jesperrasmussen.bsky.social @steverathje.bsky.social @crobertson500.bsky.social
Past work has found that negativity and identity language both predict online engagement.
In this working paper, we find that engagement is highest when negativity and identity language are combined -- especially if an *out-group* identity term is used.
Thanks very much to everybody who chimed in on this thread about attention --I wrote up some notes!
My conclusion from the discussion is that polisci should coordinate on an info board / faux feed design to study (probs v. heterogeneous effects on attention)
alexandercoppock.com/attention.pdf