Why you keep falling for 'rage bait' online and how it is hurting you
If you find yourself inexplicably angry, depressed or shocked at the state of the world there’s a sinister reason behind it, experts have claimed.
Are you ever scrolling your phone and find yourself inexplicably angry? Depressed? Shocked at the state of the world?
Well you’ve likely been a victim of what is being termed as ‘rage baiting’ marketing.
Senior marketing lecturer at ANU Dr Andrew Hughes said the theory goes as follows;
“You’re more likely to remember and engage with negative messaging than you are with positive messaging.
“Simple example. Think about a restaurant you go to where it’s really horrible, you will remember that restaurant, you won’t go back there. Whereas a restaurant which is really quite good, might slip through your memory pretty quickly and it won’t be there all the time because it’s based on our biological response of flight or flight.”
In the week working on this article I became aware of how common ‘rage baiting’ has become on social media, a misspelled name, a statistic missing a zero, an innocent quote misattributed, the ways in which the technique is being used can range from incredibly subtle to outwardly overt, and can even be produced unintentionally.
Scarlett Frazer is a Newcastle-based content producer with over 500,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok.
Despite not producing ‘rage baiting’ content herself Ms Frazer said the rise in how widespread the type of content is provides creators with something of an ethical and business conundrum.
“I definitely notice rage baiting on my feed,” Ms Frazer said.
“I accidentally triggered it one time – I posted a ‘corporate outfit’ with the tiniest bit of midriff, and the video went insanely viral. The algorithm 100% rewards outrage!
“Meanwhile, more thoughtful or creative posts don’t perform the same way. A quick throwaway video will always go viral if people in the comments start arguing. As a creative, I hate what that says about what platforms are prioritising right now.”
Dr Hughes said part of the reason behind the rise in ‘rage baiting’ was due to growing desensitisation to graphic content meaning it wasn’t having as much of an effect as it did in the past.
“What they do now is go, okay, I’ll make you angry instead. And I’ll make you angry by insulting you, I’ll say you’re an idiot or if you don’t watch this, you’re an idiot,” he said.
“Unlike, say, ‘run from the threat’ sort of marketing, the rage baiting is now ‘run to the threat’ and fight it and try and beat it up.”
Dr Hughes said a lot of the reason behind why the technique is effective is the ambiguity and something called “plausible belief factors”.
“Most of us don’t engage in content the way we did, say 10, 15 years ago, where I might sit down, read books, watch different news stations, and have a pretty good perception of how the world is operating,” he said.
“A lot of us, because of the way our lives are now, we’re so busy all the time, the content we engage with is often seconds long, not minutes long. So we’re only getting summaries of information, and that’s been probably assisted a lot by AI as well.
“The thing is the content sounds plausible and we believe it … and then all of a sudden we become very emotive about the issue.”
So how do you spot ‘rage baiting’ and disengage from it?
If the goal of ‘rage baiting’ is to make you angry the solution is to not let it. The first step of how to do that is disrupting its effect.
“Number One is spot the speed,” Dr Hughes said.
“The really good rage baiting content crafters work on speed, so they’ll up it really quick.
“They’ll go from very much mundane like we’re talking right now to WATCH OUT, LOOK OVER YOUR SHOULDER MATE, THERE’S A GIANT BLOODY THING RIGHT BEHIND YOU.
“What’s your first response? To turn around. Instead you should be asking yourself why are you listening to this person in the first place? Why should I listen to you or believe that the content I’m watching is real?
“The moment you see content like that, where it’s asking you to be like them, really angry and upset, ask yourself why should you be angry and upset about that issue? Is it something you really should be angry and upset about? In other words, slow yourself down.
“A very common method is to switch off the volume. Watch the content as a visual without volume or sound. All of a sudden, your stress will disappear very quickly. It’s a very simple tactic to do.
“The moment you turn their sound down they just look like a very angry, shouty person who you’d look at on a train and go, ‘you need to be on your meds, mate’.
“Once you break up that connection the whole thing falls apart. Because the only way it’s making you angry is if you keep on watching and engaging with the content. The moment you stop doing that is the moment it stops having its power on you.”
Surely content creators will always get hate comments?
The nature of posting on social media and being a popular creator appears to necessitate some level of negative response but that acknowledgment in of itself doesn’t particularly help, and the line is often blurred with internet trolls on one side and rage baiting on the other.
“I’ve had my fair share of trolling too,” Ms Frazer said.
“Lately most of the hate is when I mention finance, AI, or entrepreneurship. People can get uncomfortable when a woman talks about ambition in traditionally ‘masculine’ spaces like tech or finance.
“It’s often twisted into ‘you’re promoting capitalism’, which feels like a reach – but it shows how complex the reaction can be when women take up space in those conversations.
“If I were a man, my comments would be full of ‘drop the e-book’.”
Ms Frazer along with longtime boyfriend Lestyn is launching Pinktech, an AI designed specifically for women to address some of these issues.
“The idea came out of frustration. My audience is 95 per cent women, and they’re constantly in my DMs asking for advice on everything from work to relationships.
“When I discovered there was no emotionally intelligent AI built for us, the entrepreneur in me saw a massive gap. I brought the idea to Lestyn who’s far more logical and operational, and together – with an incredible team of engineers – we turned that frustration into Pinktech.”
Scarlett said while models like ChatGPT and Grok were “built by tech bros, for tech bros” Pinktech aimed to meet women where they were.
“Let’s just say – ChatGPT, we’re stealing your girls. Our goal is to become the #1 AI assistant platform for women by 2026,” added Lestyn.
Pinktech is available from November 21 on Google Play, the app store and desktop.
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Originally published as Why you keep falling for 'rage bait' online and how it is hurting you
