When news headlines begin with sensational words like “Shocking,” readers initially tend to doubt the accuracy of the information presented. However, new research suggests that this skepticism fades over time, leading people to eventually believe the claims made in those headlines. These findings were published recently in the journal Communication Research. This phenomenon suggests that while clickbait-style language might hurt credibility in the short term, it may be effective at planting information that people eventually accept as true. The study highlights a potential mechanism by which misinformation or sensationalized news can bypass critical filters over long periods. Journalists and content creators frequently use emotional language to capture attention. Previous analyses have shown that posts with highly emotional content are shared more frequently. Despite this, it was not fully understood how specific high-intensity words affect belief over time. Past research mainly looked at whether words were positive or negative rather than how stimulating they were. Xiaoyu Zhou from Beijing Normal University and colleagues from Tsinghua University sought to close this gap. They focused on “High-Arousal Sentence …