Abstract
Digital native newsrooms increasingly rely on emotionally charged headline structures to capture user attention within hyper-competitive algorithmic feeds. While extensive research has examined the linguistic features and click-through rates of clickbait, empirical insights into the real-time cognitive and physiological mechanisms underlying reader engagement remain sparse. This study investigates the 'architecture of outrage' by integrating high-precision eye-tracking with galvanic skin response (GSR) measurements to analyze visual attention and affective arousal in response to distinct clickbait typologies. Sixty-eight participants were exposed to a simulated digital news environment featuring moral-outrage clickbait, curiosity-gap clickbait, positive affective clickbait, and neutral informational headlines. The results indicate that moral-outrage headlines elicit significantly longer total visit durations (TVD) and higher initial fixation counts compared to curiosity-gap and neutral variants. Biometric analysis revealed a corresponding surge in skin conductance responses (SCR), indicating elevated sympathetic nervous system arousal specifically triggered by outrage-inducing syntax. Furthermore, mediation analysis demonstrated that physiological arousal partially mediates the relationship between moralized headline framing and reported behavioral intent to share articles. These findings demonstrate that digital outrage operates as a powerful visual and affective magnet, offering critical empirical evidence for media scholars, newsroom ethicists, and platform regulators attempting to address the systemic incentives driving digital sensationalism.
