Psychology of Clickbait • Hacker News Board

Re: Psychology of Clickbait

#11

Post by dchest » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 10:04 AM UTC

pen2l wrote: post #4

leeoniya wrote: post #2

uBlock Origin prevented 43 requests on this page. whoa, Wired!

39 for me. But on the plus side, it's pure bliss: http://i.imgur.com/JhEobs1.jpg http://i.imgur.com/hjyRkkD.png I've custom-added to uBlock even the "see also" links from all websites. It means yes that I'm not "accidentally" discovering articles on wired, but at some point I decided it's okay. I'm probably not going to miss big things by doing this... (if Wired does come out with a great article, I'll probably get l…

Wait, why are you using both uBlock and AdBlock?

Re: Psychology of Clickbait

#12

Post by dayon » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 1:56 PM UTC

exodust wrote: post #8

Contrary to the article's claims, I click and visit the clickbaiters less and less. "Annoying but it works"... I disagree. For editorial content to work, it should appeal to long term readers. Also, "psychology of clicbbait" isn't a clickait headline as they seem to suggest. Edit.. I see now they were referring to their own rather different headline, which I wouldn't have clicked on at all.

Agreed. I sometimes click, but for the most part, I usually shake my head and leave the site entirely in annoyance.

I'm curious to know: why don't published books use click bait titles? Or do they? And where's the line that separates click bait from non click bait? Lastly, have any studies shown that people are more likely to click on click bait than non click bait versions of the same articles?

Re: Psychology of Clickbait

#13

Post by destroythecore » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 2:02 PM UTC

Most people do not even realize it is bait.

Re: Psychology of Clickbait

#14

Post by coldtea » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 2:07 PM UTC

exodust wrote: post #8

Contrary to the article's claims, I click and visit the clickbaiters less and less. "Annoying but it works"... I disagree. For editorial content to work, it should appeal to long term readers. Also, "psychology of clicbbait" isn't a clickait headline as they seem to suggest. Edit.. I see now they were referring to their own rather different headline, which I wouldn't have clicked on at all.

>Contrary to the article's claims, I click and visit the clickbaiters less and less. "Annoying but it works"... I disagree.

You're just a different audience. It's not Bieber or Kardassian's ass that gets your clicks, but "This programmer's crazy FP trick has OO proponents worried for their jobs", "7 things I like about Haskell", etc...

Re: Psychology of Clickbait

#15

Post by richardboegli » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 3:08 PM UTC

I think they copied this video? 4 ways you've been click baited!? It was published a month ago

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/665808

Re: Psychology of Clickbait

#16

Post by edwardliu » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 3:29 PM UTC

exodust wrote: post #8

Contrary to the article's claims, I click and visit the clickbaiters less and less. "Annoying but it works"... I disagree. For editorial content to work, it should appeal to long term readers. Also, "psychology of clicbbait" isn't a clickait headline as they seem to suggest. Edit.. I see now they were referring to their own rather different headline, which I wouldn't have clicked on at all.

Movie trailers are baits too. Every product/service has a "clickbait" why can't articles have them too?

Magazines with hot women on the covers are buy-baits too.

The point of writing stories is so that people read them. If as long as the content is satisfactory, clickbaits are more than logical.

People are just used to traditional news concluding everything in the title. What if we've always only clickbait titles? Would you feel the same way? Our next generation will probably see this as a norm.

Re: Psychology of Clickbait

#17

Post by krisdol » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 3:52 PM UTC

exodust wrote: post #8

Contrary to the article's claims, I click and visit the clickbaiters less and less. "Annoying but it works"... I disagree. For editorial content to work, it should appeal to long term readers. Also, "psychology of clicbbait" isn't a clickait headline as they seem to suggest. Edit.. I see now they were referring to their own rather different headline, which I wouldn't have clicked on at all.

Agreed. I'd actually go through my Facebook feed and hide domains of clickbait articles. They spring up like weeds though. Unworthy and buzzfeed are not even scratching by the surface. I haven't been so good at it lately (just don't find Facebook interesting enough to visit, mainly) and my whole entire feed is just back to that shit. The maintenance effort isn't worth putting up with to be using Facebook, to be honest.

Re: Psychology of Clickbait

#18

Post by Bulkington » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 4:23 PM UTC

cygnus_a wrote: post #7

for me it's more like... boobs? why'd they put boobs in the thumbnail? the article isn't even... I ... I might as well see if there's a bigger picture of the boobs

Exactly. Breasts are the original and ultimate click bait for a large segment of human population.

http://www.livescience.com/23500-why-men-love-breasts.html

Re: Psychology of Clickbait

#19

Post by leeoniya » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 4:58 PM UTC

pen2l wrote: post #4

leeoniya wrote: post #2

uBlock Origin prevented 43 requests on this page. whoa, Wired!

39 for me. But on the plus side, it's pure bliss: http://i.imgur.com/JhEobs1.jpg http://i.imgur.com/hjyRkkD.png I've custom-added to uBlock even the "see also" links from all websites. It means yes that I'm not "accidentally" discovering articles on wired, but at some point I decided it's okay. I'm probably not going to miss big things by doing this... (if Wired does come out with a great article, I'll probably get l…

if you scroll down it loads more asynchronously

Re: Psychology of Clickbait

#20

Post by superuser2 » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 5:54 PM UTC

exodust wrote: post #8

Contrary to the article's claims, I click and visit the clickbaiters less and less. "Annoying but it works"... I disagree. For editorial content to work, it should appeal to long term readers. Also, "psychology of clicbbait" isn't a clickait headline as they seem to suggest. Edit.. I see now they were referring to their own rather different headline, which I wouldn't have clicked on at all.

>but it works

It works to drive ad impressions. Since everyone on the internet is entitled to all content for free, anyone putting in more than the minimum effort to get those ad impressions is, from a business perspective, wasting his time.