The Psychology of Clickbait

Thanks, decent article.

A recent South Park episode found Jimmy the school newspaper editor in a battle over his use of a word, and then was offered millions of dollars by a big company if they could run ads in his paper.

THEY tested Jimmy and found him to be one of a very few people who could always recognize an ad from news.

Even if you hate the show, this is a good 22 minutes of copywriting education as the line blurs between news and "sponsored" news.

The print version of clickbait is the advertorial, and if those darn little tiny words in the corner (advertisement) weren't there, millions would not know the difference, and perhaps there is a coming generation who won't know if they are an ad or not.

gjabiz

Most people's brains are a fizz of ragin' froth.

Raw emotion figures, but it is educated daily as we surf the internexus between stimulus an' response.

We wise up to what we fell for yesterday, an' our knowledge feeds back into the swirl to move the game on for everyone.

What is cool is when people stop.

Interrupt their routine, stick 'em in a monstery, beach 'em up into any kinda void, an' alla that brain fizz gushes out into their current nowhere, performin' a whole buncha unintended feelouts an' linkups as alla that autopilot thinksteam pfffttts outta the system.

That is why gaps an' absences borne of cessations are such bummers.

Funerals. Deaths. Goodbyes.

We wanna touch on stuff, but there is nuthin' there.

Bundle a treat into the gap, an the senses got a playground of novelty to explore.

The brain fizz has someplace to fizz — an almost tangible promisescape so invitin' that our own froth bubbles mesmerise us as they shimmer through the air like fluid boulders before poppin' themselves into exquisite extinction.

But we are not stoopid.

Like the guy says, promise has to be delivered, even for an OCD generation forcefed tangents.

I ****ing HATE clickbait. Really.

I had to use it myself and i hate myself that I had to use it, but unfortunately it sells. Well it gets clicks which sells ads.

Every single time i see clickbait I remember infamous quote: "Nobody has gone broke underestimating intelligence of American people".

It's true. Click bait is essentially cheap way of getting attention.

This post is kind of a rant, google "click bait spoilers"

I personally have several reasons I don't use clickbait in my ads. Reason #3 will astonish you.

Great article. I see a lot of click bait on FB ads that use celebrities
pictures just to get page views for their advertisers. I'm surprise
that these type of ads pass through FB's ad filter.

-Ray Edwards

Indeed it is quite astonishing how malleable the human mind is.

Our curiosity is so insatiable, and our resolve so frail that we lurch uncontrollably into a clickfest when we see titles like what BillyParadise just posted above.

Awesome article, it speaks to how so many web masters are using this to build fortunes just off clicks on ads.

I've read a book that deals with the psychology of "click-bait". Actually, it deals in general with tools that the media uses to get your attention.

It feels like "black-hat" copywriting but it is effective.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_Me,_I'm_Lying (Ryan Holiday)