Latest / Marketing Psychology with Fexingo: Behavioral Triggers, Persuasion, and Consumer Behavior / How the Curiosity Gap Drives More Clicks Than Any Headline
Transcript
- Lucas: You know that feeling when you see a headline like 'The reason your brain clicks on this link will surprise you' and you absolutely hate yourself for clicking, but you click anyway? Luna: Every single time. And I know it's a trick. But my finger moves before my brain catches up. Lucas: That's the curiosity gap in action — the cognitive itch that a piece of information will scratch but hasn't yet. It was popularised by the journalist George Loewenstein in the 1990s. He argued that curiosity arises when we perceive a gap between what we know and what we want to know. Luna: So it's not about the information itself. It's about the gap. Lucas: Exactly. The itch. And once you feel it, you'll do almost anything to scratch it. In marketing, that means clicking a headline, opening an email, watching the next second of a video. The gap is a temporary state of deprivation, and the brain hates deprivation. Luna: So the classic clickbait formula — 'You won't believe what happened next' — it's basically a gap. It promises to close the gap, but only if you click. Lucas: Right. And it works. BuzzFeed and Upworthy built entire editorial strategies on this. In 2013, Upworthy's headlines were so gap-heavy that they were getting over 80 million unique visitors a month. But there's a catch — the gap has to be genuine. If you open the gap and the payoff is weak, you train your audience to stop trusting you. Luna: So there's a trust component. The gap works best when the content delivers on the promise. Lucas: Exactly. The Swedish data journalist Hans Rosling was a master of this. In his book Factfulness, he uses the curiosity gap constantly — but he always closes it with real data. He'd start with a quiz: 'Which country has the highest maternal mortality rate?' You guess. You're probably wrong. Then he shows you the actual number. The gap is real, and the payoff is genuine insight. Luna: So the difference is: a tease versus a promise. Clickbait teases. Good content promises. Lucas: That's a fantastic framing. A tease just opens the gap. A promise opens the gap and guarantees you'll close it with something valuable. Gapminder, Rosling's foundation, used this in their data visualisations. They'd show a chart with missing data and ask 'What do you think the trend is?' Then they'd reveal the line. That moment of reveal is the reward. Luna: And the reward releases dopamine. So you feel good. You want to do it again. Lucas: Exactly. That's the virtuous cycle. Contrast that with the typical 'You won't believe number 7' slideshow. You click through 6 boring slides to get to number 7, and it's something you already knew. That's a negative reward. Over time, your audience stops clicking. Luna: So the curiosity gap has a half-life. Use it too often without delivering, and it stops working. Lucas: Right. And there's research to back that up. A 2015 study from the Journal of Consumer Research found that when people expect a gap to be closed and it isn't, they feel manipulated. Their trust drops. Their likelihood to engage again falls by as much as 30 percent. Luna: That's a big number. So what's the right way to use the curiosity gap in marketing? Lucas: I think the best approach is what I call the 'open loop with a specific key.' You don't just say 'something surprising.' You say 'the one thing most marketers get wrong about email subject lines.' That's a specific gap. The reader knows exactly what they're missing. The key is the phrase 'one thing.' It's finite. It's concrete. Luna: So the gap should be well-defined. Not a black hole, but a missing puzzle piece. Lucas: Exactly. And you also want to make sure the gap feels personally relevant. If I write 'Why your next marketing campaign might fail,' that's a gap that taps into fear. But if I write 'The surprising reason Iceland's tourism campaign worked,' I need you to care about Iceland. Relevance matters. Luna: So personalisation amplifies the gap. If it's about me or my industry, I feel the gap more acutely. Lucas: Right. And there's a timing element too. The curiosity gap works best when the reward is immediate. If you promise an answer 'in next week's newsletter,' the gap fades. The brain moves on. But if you promise the answer in the next paragraph, the reader stays. Luna: So the gap should be closed quickly. That's why listicles work — 'number 5 will shock you' — you're scrolling, the answers are right there. Lucas: Yes, and why serial cliffhangers can frustrate more than they engage. When Netflix drops an entire season, the gaps are closed instantly. When they do weekly releases, the gap stays open for a week. Some people love the anticipation. Others just wait until the whole season is out. Luna: So audience preference matters. Not every gap needs to be closed immediately. Lucas: Right. And that's where email marketing gets interesting. A subject line like 'I have a question for you' opens a gap. The reader opens the email. Inside, the first line says 'Do you know the one metric that predicts customer retention better than any other?' Another gap. If the email then delivers the answer — say, net promoter score — you've closed both gaps. That's a satisfying loop. Luna: So it's nested gaps. You open one, close it, open another, close it. Like a puzzle. Lucas: Exactly. And the best marketers do this intentionally. They map out the curiosity journey. They know exactly which gap they're opening at each step. Luna: It's almost a superpower. But it can be abused. Where's the line between ethical curiosity and manipulation? Lucas: The line is honesty. If the gap is real and the answer is valuable, it's ethical. If you're manufacturing a gap just to get a click, and the content doesn't deliver, it's manipulation. The FTC has actually gone after some clickbait headlines under deceptive advertising rules. So there are real consequences. Luna: So the curiosity gap is a tool. Like any tool, it's about how you use it. Lucas: Exactly. And I think that's the key takeaway for marketers. Don't just open a gap. Open a gap you can close. And make sure the closing is worth the reader's time. Luna: That's a good rule of thumb. You know, it's funny — this show is essentially built on curiosity gaps. Every episode title promises to reveal something about a psychological trigger. And we try to deliver. Lucas: We do. And we keep it ad-free because we think the content should speak for itself. If these conversations spark something you've actually used in your work or your thinking, that's the reward. And if you want to support that choice, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to keep this independent and free of sponsor noise. We appreciate it. Lucas: Alright, back to the gap. One more practical tip. The curiosity gap works especially well in B2B marketing, where audiences are skeptical and time-pressed. A subject line like 'The one slide that doubled our conversion rate' is specific and gap-rich. It works because it's credible and the payoff is concrete. Luna: So specificity builds credibility, which makes the gap feel real. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the difference between a trick and a technique. A trick is a shallow gap. A technique is a gap backed by genuine value. Luna: So next time I see 'You won't believe...' I'll ask myself: is this a trick or a technique? Lucas: And then you'll probably still click. But at least you'll know why.