Human cognition craves lists, says web analytics guru Neil Patel, citing studies by neuropsychologists of the brain's structure.
Our hunger for specificity drives us to click headlines that promise a list.
What's more, reader-survey and test results show:
- Headlines promising a numbered list are 71% more popular than headlines merely promising a list.
- People value the clarity of headlines that promise a list.
- Women like lists more than men.
- Longer lists deliver greater reader satisfaction than short ones.
- Odd-numbered lists outperform even-numbered ones.
- The optimal number of items in a list is 25.
These results make lists "a content marketer’s go-to technique," Patel says.
But lists have a dark side.
Lists advance human misery, according to Right Life Project, promoting clutter, instant gratification and thoughtlessness.
As Zig Ziglar once said, "The person who dumps garbage into your mind will do you considerably more harm than the person who dumps garbage on your floor, because each load of mind garbage negatively impacts your possibilities and lowers your expectations."
