Headlines and Libel: Is the ‘Unit’ Approach the Most Effective?

Abstract

Courts trying newspaper headline libel cases have relied on a “unit approach” in which headline and accompanying story are evaluated as a unit. This experimental study suggests such an approach may not be highly effective. Subjects who saw a defamatory headline accompanied by a non-defamatory article were more likely to perceive the unit as defamatory than were those reading a non-defamatory headline and defamatory story. This result, in conjunction with reader habits of scanning headlines only, suggests courts might consider potentially libelous headlines separate from the accompanying article.