Rage bait is defined as a piece of media specifically made to provoke a negative reaction from the viewer, which results in the viewer interacting with it. These videos are usually staged and created specifically to target an audience. 

A current trend is rage bait regarding fashion trends. Someone might post a TikTok slideshow of their “Fashion No’s” and “Fashion Yes’s” and insult large groups of people by responding with, “It’s just my opinion.”

Rage bait is preying on viewers’ emotions and trying to earn a reaction without caring if it’s negative or not, because any interaction on a post is a good reaction. As long as it earns the attention and clicks they want, it is successful. 

So what makes anger so profitable? People who create rage bait profit from views, likes, comments and shares. If a video gets enough interaction, the content creator is talked about on the internet and can get brand deals and sponsorships from viewers’ emotional responses.

 This anger analysis from the American Psychological Association titled “Control Anger Before it Controls You” has some insight for this claim. 

“Like other emotions, it [anger] is accompanied by physiological and biological changes; when you get angry, your heart rate and blood pressure go up, as do the levels of your energy hormones, adrenaline, and noradrenaline. Anger can be caused by both external and internal events.” 

There is psychology behind anger explaining what happens in a person’s brain when they see rage bait. They don’t think when they feel angry –they react instead, and that’s exactly what the creator wants. But how are viewers supposed to know what is or isn’t rage bait? First, let’s take a look at what identifies rage bait. 

An article titled “Don’t Fall for Social Media Rage-Bait” on dailycitizen.com had this to say on how  to identify rage bait: “Posts making broad claims about large groups of people (i.e. all Christians are extremists) are likely rage-bait.”

People tend to believe everything they see on the internet and play right into the creators’ hands, earning them comments and followers to keep up with their constant stream of negativity.

 To catch rage bait, viewers have to look closely at the details in the video. Are the reactions genuine? Is the lighting too good for an unstaged video? Those questions will be able to classify the different subgenres of clickbait, and if they should interact or not. 

So know whenever you come across something that gets your blood boiling and makes you want to comment, stop and scroll.