What grabs people’s attention online, and how do you create content that actually holds it? Explore some common visual triggers, hooks, and platform-specific tricks in this blog.
Written by Lucie Simonova
You scroll. You stop.
Something grabs your attention before you even have the chance to think about it.
That is scroll-stopping content: posts, videos, or images strong enough to make someone pause. In today’s attention economy, these moments matter because they are the difference between being noticed and being ignored.
In this blog, you’ll find out why certain images, words, or moments make you pause. We’ll look at the simple psychology behind what makes people stop scrolling, from the visuals that catch the eye to the emotions that make content stick. You’ll also get practical ideas you can use to create posts that draw attention in a crowded feed.
People stop scrolling when something in their feed is different enough to break their usual viewing pattern. The human brain is wired to notice sudden changes, anything new, and anything that feels personally relevant. Most content is filtered out automatically, so only posts that stand out in a clear way grab attention. This process happens very quickly, often in less than a second, as the mind decides whether to pause or keep moving.
Think of it like walking through a crowd. You pass by many people without noticing until you spot a friend’s face or hear your name. You might also notice a stranger in extravagant clothing that stands out from everyone else.
Social media works in a similar way. Here are a few examples of what might stop someone from scrolling:
Our brains filter out most of the information we see every day to avoid overload. Because of this, content needs a clear “pattern break”—something that stands out from what the viewer expects—to get noticed. Without that break, posts blend into the background, and people keep scrolling.
Elements like contrast, faces, clear layout, and visual hierarchy guide the eye quickly and help highlight what matters most. Strong contrasts make objects pop out, faces draw empathy and connection, and a clear layout makes it easy to understand what’s important. Visual hierarchy, in other words, how design arranges elements so that the most important parts stand out first, directs where the viewer looks and in what order.
Users form a first impression of visual content in just milliseconds (around 50 ms). This means the way something looks at first glance plays a big role in catching attention. And this first impression also lasts, as studies have shown that it rarely changes if you give people more time.
Research by Gitte Lindgaard and her team shows that people form an opinion about a website’s aesthetics within just 50 milliseconds of seeing it. This initial judgment usually stays the same, even if they spend more time on the site. Source: nngroup.com
A great example of scroll-stopping content is HubSpot’s Instagram account. They often leverage cultural moments to create humorous memes that people can relate to. The post below featuring a meme with Pedro Pascal, the internet’s number one favourite celebrity, is a great example of leveraging familiar faces to grab attention.
Certain emotions play a big role in making people stop scrolling. Feelings like surprise, joy, FOMO (fear of missing out), controversy, curiosity, or empathy can catch attention quickly. At the same time, cognitive triggers like the curiosity gap, authority bias, and statistics help keep people interested and engaged. When combined well, emotional and cognitive triggers create content that not only grabs attention but also holds it.
Not sure about what some of the triggers actually mean? Let’s unpack that.
Take a look at the example post below. Why does it work? It uses a clear statistic that gives concrete evidence about user behavior. At the same time, it creates a subtle sense of urgency and curiosity as readers might wonder if their content is truly optimized or if they’re missing out.
Keep in mind that some triggers, like controversy, should be used carefully and only if they fit with the brand’s style.
The hook—the very first part of your content, like the headline, opening line, or first image—plays a huge role in whether people engage. Studies show that viewers take roughly 1.5 seconds to decide if something is worth their time (source: thebettercontentclub.com). If your hook doesn’t catch their eye quickly, most will keep scrolling without engaging.
This split-second window means your hook needs to spark curiosity, highlight a clear benefit, or make a strong emotional impact right away. Without that immediate pull, even great content can get overlooked.
Here are some quick, effective hook formulas you can try:
The key to content that truly connects is storytelling, or in the case of social media, micro-storytelling. Instead of overwhelming your audience with too much information at once, micro-narratives break ideas down into short, relatable story structures. These bite-sized stories grab attention because they quickly set up a situation your audience recognizes and then lead them toward a satisfying or surprising resolution.
Popular formats include:
Storytelling is a huge part of marketing because stories help people connect with your brand on a deeper level. Learn more about storytelling in marketing with great examples of well-known brands that nailed it.
To make your copy even stronger, you can try these techniques:
Content is more likely to grab attention when it feels like it was made specifically for the person seeing it. Relevance comes from aligning your message with the audience’s interests, current trends, and cultural touchpoints they recognize. Personalization can be as simple as referencing a hobby or a niche interest. Context matters too: when and where your content appears influences how it’s received.
A post that lands at the right time, on the right platform, and in the right mood of the audience stands a much better chance of making them stop scrolling.
One way to boost relevance is by tying content to things your audience already loves. That might mean referencing a trending TV show, a popular meme format, or a relatable struggle like spotting a last-minute typo right after publishing or fixing a formatting glitch in a program. Small signals like this create an instant sense of “this is for me,” which is powerful in a fast-scrolling feed.
Take a look at the example below leaning into the relatable struggles or every content professional.
Timing plays a big role as well. Matching your tone and message to the time of day, season, or current events can help your content feel more in sync with your audience’s mindset. A light, funny post might work well for a casual weekend scroll, while an informative, concise post might fit better during a busy weekday morning.
The most effective platform-specific strategies match both the format of the platform and the way people consume content there. On Instagram, carousel posts with curiosity-driven covers and bold text overlays can boost swipes. TikTok and Reels benefit from strong video hooks within the first three seconds and captions for silent viewers. Across most platforms, including Facebook and LinkedIn, adding movement can make content more eye-catching.
This could be a short animated GIF or a repeating background video Even small effects, like slowly zooming in on a photo or gently shifting text, can create enough change on the screen to make someone pause.
Each platform has its own “language,” and knowing it helps your content feel native rather than forced. Instagram rewards eye-catching visuals, clean layouts, and that satisfying feeling of swiping through a carousel to get the full story. TikTok and Reels are all about speed and personality, so if you don’t grab attention in those first seconds, viewers have already moved on.
Trendy content that can go viral, like memes or short videos with trending sound, often work best on platforms where algorithms reward quick engagement, like TikTok or Instagram Reels. Evergreen content, on the other hand, is timeless and keeps bringing value over months and years, which could work well on YouTube videos, and even Facebook or LinkedIn.
A scroll-stopping system is a repeatable approach that combines what we know about how the brain works, what emotions grab attention, how stories engage, how visuals guide the eye, and how each platform rewards certain types of content. It’s not about a one-off “viral” post, but about using these elements consistently, then refining them through testing and iteration.
Once you have the core elements, like neuroscience insights, emotional triggers, storytelling frameworks, strong visual hierarchy, and platform-specific tactics, you can start building them into a workflow and begin testing.
For example, test two different thumbnail designs for the same video (A/B testing), experiment with different hook phrases in your captions, or post at varied times to see when your audience responds most. Over time, this builds a feedback loop where you learn what really makes your audience pause and engage.
Now that we’ve covered the principles behind scroll-stopping content, let’s put them into practice. Below is an example of how we could create an Instagram carousel post for an imaginary local bakery. We’ll combine neuroscience insights, emotional triggers, storytelling, relevance and context, and platform-specific strategies.
Neuroscience insights
We know that anything that feels personally relevant can be scroll-stopping. For a bakery, that means tapping into feelings of nostalgia, joy, and warmth, paired with visuals that invoke appetite.
Emotional trigger
Storytelling framework: Before → After
Relevance, personalization, context
Platform-specific strategy (Instagram)
Scroll-stopping content is the result of understanding how people think, feel, and behave online. When you combine psychology, emotion, storytelling, and platform know-how, you’re on a good way to create content worth stopping for.
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