Millions of people now get their news online. But with so much online content to consume and so little time to consume it, editors at news department know that writing “catchy” headlines is more important than ever. So, what makes a headline catchy? A new study published in Nature Human Behaviour found that negative emotion words in headlines made it more likely that consumers would click through and read the story. In contrast, positive emotion words decreased click rates.

The idea that people are more attentive to negative things is not a new one. Journalists have always had this intuition (直觉) and psychology studies have backed it up. People dislike losses more than they like gains, and they overweigh negative information in many contexts. Even infants pay more attention to negative stimuli. This negativity bias (偏见) makes some sense from an evolutionary perspective: If you miss out on an opportunity to search for some delicious berries, you will be sad... but if you accidentally eat a poison mushroom, you will be dead.

Why the dataset analyzed by Robertson and colleagues is so special? First of all, it is data on the number of clicks in response to more than 105,000 headlines on the news site Upworthy. Therefore, these are real decisions being made by real people. Moreover, Upworthy often tested out different headlines for the same exact story, so they essentially ran experiments on their users.

Not only does this paper tell us more about the factors that influence online news consumption, but it also showcases the nuanced (细微的) ways in which emotion influences decision-making. The researchers found that words about sadness increased click-through rates, but words about fear actually decreased them, and anger words had no significant effect. Now, we don’t know if people were actually feeling those emotions when they read the headlines, so we will need more studies to explore these effects further. However, given that different unconnected emotions might be associated with different assessments of one’s current situation, it makes sense that not all negative emotions would have the same effects on behavior. For example, previous research has shown that people are more optimistic and risk-seeking when they are angry, but they are more pessimistic and risk-averse (风险厌恶) when they are afraid.

Almost one in five drivers had dozed off behind the wheel, a shocking news report had showed. Of those who were dozing off, 29% have done so with their cars speeding at 70 miles per hour. The report also found a quarter of men have fallen asleep while driving, making it almost twice as many as women.

The Safety on Wheel Report, by Post Office Insurance, also looked at how often tiredness or a lack of concentration caused accidents. Three in ten drivers have experienced an accident, from passing a walker crossing to hitting another vehicle, because of a lack of concentration. Meanwhile, almost half (49%) of UK drivers have driven when they do not concentrate.

Paul Havenhand, head of insurance at Post Office, said, “ When tiredness strikes, drivers should avoid the roads.” There is no measurement for tired driving, unlike driving under the influence of alcohol, yet it could result in an equally dangerous accident.

Drivers are advised to take a 15-minute break from driving every two hours. However, a third (36%) are so eager to reach their destination that they will ignore feelings of tiredness. What’s more, almost one in five (18%) will drive for longer than four hours without a break, while 6% carry on for up to 6 hours. Just over a quarter (27%) choose a quick stop to buy a cup of coffee, which is a very popular way for drivers to get rid of tiredness, and only 17% stop to have a rest until they feel energetic again. Mr. Havenhand added, “Drivers should plan ahead and rest before starting a long journey; besides, they can take regular breaks to recharge their batteries while on road; in some cases, if they do feel too tired to concentrate on the roads, they could consider an alternative means of transport.”

Studies show that you may be lied to every day anywhere from 10 to 200 times. We say, “Nice song.” “Honey, you don’t look fat in that, no.” But another study showed that strangers lied three times within the first 10 minutes of meeting each other. We lie more to strangers than we lie to coworkers. Men lie eight times more about themselves than they do about other people. Women lie more to protect other people. If you’re married, you’re going to lie to your wife/ husband in one out of every 10 communications. If you’re unmarried, that number drops to three. But look, if at some point you got lied to, it’s because you agreed to get lied to. Truth about lying: lying’s a cooperative act. Not all lies are harmful. Sometimes we’re willing to get lied to for social dignity (尊严), maybe to keep a private secret.

Lying is complex. It exists in our daily and business lives. We’re deeply disturbed by the truth. We explain it, sometimes for very good reasons, other times just because we don’t understand the gaps between ideals and realities in our lives. We’re against lying, but secretly we’re for it in ways that our society has practiced for centuries and centuries. It’s as old as breathing. It’s part of our culture and history. Think the stories from Dante, Shakespeare, the Bible, News of the World.

Lying has great value to the evolution of human beings. Researchers have long known that the more intelligent the species, the more likely it is to lie. We humans like to become leaders. It starts really early. How early? Well, babies will pretend to cry, pause, wait to see who’s coming and then go right back to crying. One-year-olds learn hiding truth. Five-year-olds lie outright and try to control through flattery (奉承). Nine-year-olds, masters of covering up.

So what do we do about lies? Well, there are steps we can take to guide our way through the bushes. Trained lie spotters (检测员) get to the truth 90% of the time. The rest of us, we’re only 54% right. There are clever liars and stupid liars, but there’re no real creative liars. While lying, we all make the same mistakes, and we all use the same techniques.