Easy to Understand, Easy to See
Conceptual and Perceptual Fluency Drives News Headline Selection
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11444953 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elizabeth E Riggs (0000-0001-6683-7952, The Ohio State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 711-724 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-24 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Language and Social Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0261-927X • E-ISSN: 1552-6526 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0261927x261424551 |
| OpenAlex | W7131248823 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 26 |
People generally prefer fluent, or easy, information processing experiences. Consequently, processing fluency often impacts individuals’ judgments and evaluations of information. Previous research found that processing fluency influenced headline selection and recognition. The present experiment replicated and extended this work by testing whether type of fluency, comparing conceptual (language difficulty) and perceptual (figure-to-background contrast) fluency manipulations, impacts selection and recognition of news headlines. Results demonstrated that individuals showed strong preferences for fluent news headlines, across both types of fluency manipulations. However, only the conceptual fluency manipulation impacted recognition, such that easy language was associated with higher recognition
Fluency · Headline · Perception · Processing fluency · Selection (genetic algorithm · Educational Strategies and Epistemologies · Memory Processes and Influences · Reading and Literacy Development
Illusions of immediate memory
Metacognitive experiences as information
Confirmation Bias, Ingroup Bias, and Negativity Bias in Selective Exposure to Political Information
Overcoming intuition
Feelings-as-Information Theory
An illusion of memory
Uniting the Tribes of Fluency to Form a Metacognitive Nation
Looking the Other Way
Effects of Perceptual Fluency on Judgments of Truth
Exploring “fringe” consciousness
Using infographics to reduce the negative effects of jargon on intentions to vaccinate against Covid-19
The Meta–Cognitive Model (MCM) of Attitudes
If It's Difficult to Pronounce, It Must Be Risky
The Interplay of Jargon, Motivation, and Fatigue While Processing Covid-19 Crisis Communication Over Time
The Limited Capacity Model of Mediated Message Processing
Using metacognitive cues to amplify message content
Good Sound, Good Research
Ease of retrieval as information
Methods for dealing with reaction time outliers
Varying Metacognition Through Public Opinion Questions
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |