Year in Clicks: 2014's Top Duke Today Stories

A study shedding light on why conservatives and liberals disagree so vehemently was far and away Duke’s most-read story in 2014, and was one of many stories capturing campus life read thousands of times over.

Coverage of the study, "Solution Aversion: On the Relation Between Ideology and Motivated Disbelief," was one of 10 stories in Working@Duke’s 2014 news quiz, which asked Duke community members to accurately rank the top-10 stories from across Duke Today based on page views.

Titled “Denying Problems When We Don’t Like the Solutions,” the piece was viewed more than 115,000 times after publishing Nov. 6, about 20,000 more views than Remembering a Star, a story about the death of Jovian, a much-loved Coquerel’s sifaka from the Duke Lemur Center famous for appearing on the TV show “Zoboomafoo.”

Of nearly 50 quiz participants, Judith Wittenberg, a program coordinator with The Graduate School, correctly picked the placement of four stories, earning her the top spot among quiz-takers. 

In addition to the political study and story about Jovian, other most-read stories included research about a fungus deadly to AIDS patients, an inside look at Duke’s Class of 2018 and free tickets to a Duke football game.

“One of my favorites last year was the lemur story because I think they’re such neat critters, and I know they have a general appeal,” said Wittenberg, who correctly guessed the placement of the story about Jovian. “I read Duke Today on a daily basis, so I went with my gut and what I thought other people would find interesting.”

As a prize, Wittenberg will receive a Working@Duke coffee mug to enjoy a hot beverage each morning while checking out the latest on Duke's daily news site throughout 2015.

Among other entrants, three staff members correctly picked placement of three stories, four had two correct and 13 had one correct. Twenty-six participants weren’t able to place any stories in correct order.

A story about students urging their peers to avoid using hurtful language had the most correct placements with eight.

Here are the most-read stories from Duke Today in 2014:

1. Denying Problems When We Don’t Like the Solutions
2. Remembering a Star
3. Fungus Deadly to AIDS Patients Found to Grow on Trees
4. Living A Good Life. 14 Suggestions for the Class of 2014
5. To Teach Scientific Reproducibility, Start Young
6. ‘Kickoff’ Duke Football Season with Free Tickets
7. ‘Think Before You Talk’ Gets Duke Students to Do Just That
8. Duke Officials Monitoring Winter Weather System
9. Mourning Two Duke Students
10. A Look at the Class of 2018