“This Will Blow Your Mind”: examining the urge to click clickbaits

• Main Authors: Chua, Alton Yeow Kuan, Pal, Anjan, Banerjee, Snehasish
• Other Authors: Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Social sciences::Communication; Clickbait; Gratifications
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/154916
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Purpose: Integrating the uses and gratifications (U&G) theory, the notion of information richness and personal epistemology framework, the purpose of this research is to propose and empirically validate a framework which specifies Internet users' urge to click clickbaits. Design/methodology/approach: The hypotheses in the proposed framework were tested using a between-participants experimental design (N = 204) that manipulated information richness (text-only vs. thumbnail clickbaits). Findings: Curiosity, perceived enjoyment and surveillance were significant predictors of the urge to click. In terms of information richness, the urge to click was higher for thumbnail vis-à-vis text-only clickbaits. IEB (IEB) moderated the relation between the gratification of passing time and the urge to click. Originality/value: This paper represents one of the earliest attempts to investigate Internet users' urge to click clickbaits. Apart from extending the boundary conditions of the U&G theory, it integrates two other theoretical lenses, namely, the notion of information richness and personal epistemology framework, to develop and empirically validate a theoretical framework.