I clicked this clickbait article and you won't believe what happened next ....

Are you a one of the victims of clickbait articles and videos? Like when you clicked tha article all you can say is "is that all?"

So why many blogger/vlogger create headlines or articles that is pleasing to our eyes or rather say so much tempting for us to resist to click.

Clickbait

A certain style of content and headline writing that's geared towards trying to get people click on something as much as possible often at the expense of quality information.

But what makes clickbait clickable?

The answer lies on our own psychological tendencies. As different as people are, there are certain things that the brain generally really likes. Information presented in an ordered list for example is especially appealing which is why you always see the slideshow of 10 most luckiest or richest people.

These works because they spread information on a structured way and also present themselves with a degree of authority. A list of with a precise number of element seems more certain and has more finality than a general headline. It's very appealing to our brains which want to cut through the crap and understand things quickly.

Very ironic, considering the list of themselves are often completely f'n useless. And even for clickbaiting headlines that don't direct you to a numbered list.

The use of authorative sounding words such as "science", "the best" or "destroyed" is common in order to appeal to that same desire for certainty in our lives which explains why many articles that try to promote half-baked things like political opinions.

Other clickbait headline flips the script of how journalism was usually done in the past by merely teasing at what the content is inside. Instead of dogs bite man, you see a man confronted a dog and you won't believe what happened next. This encourages the user to click through instead of giving away the articles meat right in the headline.

This kind of direct appeal to our natural curiousity, result in the reward center of our brain lighting up when you find out what the answer to clickbaiting question or tease in the headline was. Even if the content inside turns out to be totally stupid.

This has often been reffered to as the curiousity gap which is a key part of how the website upworthy operates. Upworthy's tendency to only place hints as to the actual content in their titles has led their articles for being some of the most shared content on all of Facebook.

And of course, clickbait has gone beyond legitimate sites, well, as legitimate as they can be being used in the ads designed to look like real article. Although quite a few tech savvy users have developed an eye for what's legitimate content and what's advertising or just use an ad blocking or something. The enticing headlines still draw a lot of people and have for a long time.

Indeed, the arguable ancestor of modern clickbait are the vapid but eye catching headlines of yesteryear.

With the sort of sensationalism playing to some pretty fundamental aspects of human nature, i wouldn't expect clickbait to go away anytime soon.

Lead image used as clickbaiting purposes