Document Type
Article
Author ORCID Identifier
Ankit Shrestha https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9012-6146
Audrey Flood https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3872-7990
Saniat Sohrawardi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4707-7035
Matthew Wright https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8489-6347
Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5764-2253
Journal/Book Title/Conference
CHI '24: Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
Publication Date
5-11-2024
Journal Article Version
Version of Record
First Page
1
Last Page
23
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Abstract
Clickbait headlines work through superlatives and intensifiers, creating information gaps to increase the relevance of their associated links that direct users to time-wasting and sometimes even malicious websites. This approach can be amplified using targeted clickbait that takes publicly available information from social media to align clickbait to users’ preferences and beliefs. In this work, we first conducted preliminary studies to understand the influence of targeted clickbait on users’ clicking behavior. Based on our findings, we involved 24 users in the participatory design of story-based warnings against targeted clickbait. Our analysis of user-created warnings led to four design variations, which we evaluated through an online survey over Amazon Mechanical Turk. Our findings show the significance of integrating information with persuasive narratives to create effective warnings against targeted clickbait. Overall, our studies provide valuable insights into understanding users’ perceptions and behaviors towards targeted clickbait, and the efficacy of story-based interventions.
Recommended Citation
Ankit Shrestha, Audrey Flood, Saniat Javid Sohrawardi, Matthew Wright, and Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen. 2024. A First Look into Targeted Clickbait and its Countermeasures: The Power of Storytelling. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’24), May 11–16, 2024, Honolulu, HI, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 23 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642301
