Image‐Left, Text‐Right: The Horizontal Sequence Effect of Images and Text on Consumer Responses to in‐Feed News

ABSTRACT Incorporating images and text is prevalent for in‐feed news, yet little is understood about how the arrangement of these elements influences consumer responses. This study investigates the impact of the horizontal sequence of images and text on consumer responses. Through four studies employing self‐designed virtual news websites, we demonstrate that consumers exhibit greater willingness to click on the news item and hold more positive attitudes toward the news item when presented with the image‐left , text‐right (vs. text‐left, image‐right ) horizontal sequence. We further find that processing fluency mediates this effect. However, the effect of the image‐text horizontal sequence weakens for consumers with a low need for structure and reverses for individuals with right‐to‐left reading habits. These findings provide practical insights for news media companies to optimize the horizontal layout of images and text to address news avoidance.