Disclaimer: I’m not actually listing 86 reasons for anything in this article. I am, however, going to talk about a bizarrely niche area of psychological study: what makes headlines tick. A quick glance at a search engine result for… well, practically anything at all reveals that the vast majority of headlines have numbers in them.

From firsthand experience, I can say that any time I’m generating topics for clients, I’m always thinking of how to come up with 3 More Reasons Why Catchy Titles Are Essential or 4 Ways to Hook Readers with Headlines. That’s what everyone wants, because we’re all told that’s what really sells. Are formulaic headlines really that essential to your blog posts’ success?

Because Psychology

There’s a staggering amount of research and study that goes into explaining the latest trends—not just in terms of what those trends might be at any given microsecond, but why. Headline psychology (yes, that’s a thing) is no exception.

There have been studies on everything from the words that are most often used in viral headlines to how many characters are best. Some research claims that learning how to write headlines is actually more important than learning how to write decent copy. Not sure how I feel about that last one.

Yet, despite all these curious statistics, the simple truth behind a winning headline is this: it ain’t rocket science. I mean, you can try to make it rocket science all you want, but I think that’s a waste of time. Why? Because humans are simple, straightforward animals.

Look. We like patterns. We like anticipation, sure, but we love predictability more. When you see a headline that promises 8 Fabulous Tips for Writing Enticing Titles, you know exactly what you’re getting when you click, and most readers find a lot of comfort in that fact. It’s our brains. It’s biology.

The other thing that’s great about numbers in headlines is that they promise quick, easily digested information. 3 Hints? Fantastic. That’s exactly how many hints I have time to read before rushing off to my next super important meeting on how to write amazing headlines.

Title Trends

So do numbers matter in titles? The truth is, numbers themselves matter much less in titles than words matter in titles; numbers just happen to be the latest gimmick. Before this, it was some other attention-grabbing tactic. [Source: A History of 23 Hot Headline Trends.]

At the same time, you can’t tack on a title as an afterthought; every single one of those words has to count. More than anything, remember that your title is your first impression—the hook that lands the readers, the bait that leads them to the blog. Just make your headline matter—numbers or no numbers—and the readers will follow.

Maarit Miller is a writing junkie who will always love the Oxford comma.