The Psychology of Listicles

BrainCraft is created and hosted by Vanessa Hill and brought to you by PBS Digital Studios. Talking psychology, neuroscience & why we act the way we do.

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[caleblimb]

When I see a new BrainCraft video, my muscles twitch into a little subconscious smile.

[countmyshoes]

at 4:35 I tried to remember a Listicle i'd read, the first thing I thought of was "37 Signs You Grew Up In Australia In The ’90s". And then, there it was on screen.

Quality Listicle, I give it an 8/10.

[Ndo]

I don't remember listicles but I've noticed months or years after when things pop up in conversation, I will remember that fact or story in a listicle if it has to do with the topic of conversation.

[caleblimb]

The reason I don't like 'listicles' is because they always seem to have a click-bait nature about them. Like "The top 10 best things ever!" or "Top 5 things you won't believe are actually true!". Even if you get past the title they almost always seem to be shallow and poorly informed.

[NeonsStyleHD]

That idea channel flashing gave me a fit, thanks, My mum found me on the floor.

[boumbh]

Top four moments in this video when you can't stand not substituting the two first letters of the word "listicle":
#4. 0:21 -> 0:30
#3. 5:47 -> 6:01
#2. 0:30 -> 0:36
#1. 4:56 -> 5:13

[conjecturemm]

You make a really good point about remembering what we do from listicles. The second you said that I thought of something like 3 listicles I've read in the past...forever

New subber, great content :)

[liranpiade]

I strongly agree with you on listicles. Great job again, Vanessa.

[SquiggsMitchell]

Love this video! It inspired me to start taking notes and analyzing educational videos like these

[SalameeQueijos]

I, as a mathematician, guess that this idea that we like easier to process information kinda explain why it is so much more pleasurable to read a well written mathematical proof than a bad written one (even if it is correct).

I would say that to, a certain degree, this explains the concept of mathematical beauty and why some people (us mathematicians inclueded) see beauty in mathetmatics.

[zellfaze]

While I only have a personal anecdote on this, I'm not convinced that we can't learn from listicles.

I spend a lot of time every day learning things. I subscribe to 110 Youtube channels of which a small small minority are not educational, and I try to keep up with them. I also read/edit Wikipedia, read non-fiction books, and watch documentaries. Learning is how I spend most of my time.

I am also a huge fan of Mental Floss and watch all of their videos and sometimes even read listicles off of their website. I have learned an enormous amount of information from Mental Floss lists. I often remember items from Mental Floss and use them as "Did you know..." facts that I give to people during conversation. Additionally, I have found that educational listicles are often a great entry point into learning about a subject. Watching Mental Floss regularly gets me reading Wikipedia articles, which then gets me researching a subject in detail.

[kcthewanderer]

I hate article lists. I purposely will not read (or watch) the buzzfeed clones. I also do not like the word "listicles." Sounds like "testicles." (tests + articles?)

Buzzfeed gif curating carries no interest to me, but Cracked's listed articles have been a long time favourite. I remember loads of trivia I learned from them, and the digestible nature of sectioned articles made it really easy to read their articles based on people's experiences (with poverty, scientology, sex work, etc) that opened my eyes to things I wouldn't normally spend that long with.

[UHFStation]

How do we define, "listicles" and how do they differ from lists?

[myselfnoone]

I've seen a few of these that said something about "10 ways to tell if someone has a crush on you." What it boiled down was if they interact with you in any way they're utterly infatuated with you.

[Sirgeshko]

I'm genuinely surprised you didn't even mention the other reason listicles are so popular on the internet... advertising. Most of them require a click for each number, each click reloading the page, driving up page views and inflating advertising revenue.

[Wamboo]

My biggest problem with these kind of articles is what i think is called the "editorial point of view". Its only a list of information in no particular order, not from worst to best, from smallest to biggest.... you get the idea. You could take any of these articles, rearrange them, maybe take a few entries off or put some in, and you basically have a new article by the definition of the "Listicle". Not that "Top 10" lists are any better, but at least they have some kind of point, because, usually, you have the most important thing of that article at its end, stating that the entries before the last one are "inferior" in some kind of way that is important to the listing.



(I hope i got my point across. English is not my native language, hope you still get it somehow. Also, great explanation from the two of you, definetly an informative way of entertainment, unlike listicles)

[adameggers]

While I agree completely that the listicles themselves are rarely memorable, so are many events in life where you learn information that sticks with you, filed somewhere deep, forever. I can't remember most of my listicles, but what I can remember is having learned some information from them that has been useful from time to time. It's much like school, where you're not likely to remember the particular lesson or piece of homework that taught you a certain concept (there are many examples where that is the case, and many where it is not), but you still understand how to do basic math.

[jorgeloubetcasas]

Here are the top 10 reasons why I like this video:

[desromic]

Can you create a listicle of all listicles which do not list themselves?