Betteridge's Law of Headlines

Journalists love this one trick!

Photo by Bank Phrom on Unsplash

Betteridge's law of headlines states "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." The rationale is simple. Journalists know that stronger headlines will draw in a reader. Making a juicy claim is going to sell a lot of papers. But being wrong is bad. Having to publish a retraction is embarrassing. So, if a journalist has weak evidence, or even no evidence at all, and wants to cover their ass, phrasing a headline in a form of a question is a way of getting around the risk.

Let’s say there is suspicion that Christopher Walken is actually an alien. An honest headline might read, “Christopher Walken is suspected of having non-Earthly background”, or “Evidence emerges that Christopher Walken is from another planet”. That might draw some interest, but the headline clearly hedges. What the journalist would like to write is “Christopher Walken is an alien!” But there isn’t enough evidence for that. That would open the paper up to libel allegations or they might have to retract the article and make a public apology. So instead, the headline reads “Is Christopher Walken an alien?” Now the media outlet is safe. They are just asking questions, and who can be against that?

The fact is, however, that if there was any real evidence that Christopher Walken is an extraterrestrial, then the headline would say that. Because the headline is a question, the reader can infer that there actually isn’t any hard evidence Christopher Walken is an alien, and therefore he is probably not. That is Betteridge’s law of headlines.

Once you learn about Betteridge’s law, you start to see it everywhere. Here’s a good one:

Is Northern Ireland a Failed State?

Of course the answer is no. Northern Ireland has a lot of problems. They went three years without a functioning government. The healthcare system is in shambles. Brexit is causing a host of issues. But it is not a failed state. Not even close. People still pay their taxes, government employees still show up to work, and firefighters will still come if your house is on fire. Walking around Belfast is not going to be anything like walking around Mogadishu. Because the headline “Northern Ireland has a lot of problems” isn’t very catchy, and “Northern Ireland is a failed state” is just plain wrong, “Is Northern Ireland a Failed State?” is the result.

Here are two more:

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Ugh. No, a blackout is not going help solve climate change. And no, millennials are not saving too much for retirement.

Then there the examples that are just shameful. Clear sops trying to sell papers and/or clicks from organizations that know better:

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Some caveats to the law. Sometimes the question is more in jest than anything else. I give that a pass:

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Then there are the times when the question is meant in earnest or the answer is clearly meant to be no, so the law doesn’t apply:

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But overall, Betteridge’s law holds. It’s journalists wanting to make claims that they can’t defend. Like these two gems, also from the New York Times:

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So be cautious when reading an article than ends in a question mark. Unless it’s a prediction, i.e. “Can Biden Win Re-election?”, then it’s probably just an inflammatory headline meant to draw clicks. Be suspicious with any question in a headline, that if given as a statement, would be a bombshell news story.

Finally, there’s this: