TAWANDA CHARI & TAKUDZWA HILLARY CHIWANZA
It happens every day. A controversial tweet goes viral, and before we can blink, it floods our timelines. It’s a hot take, a flagrant insult that becomes a grievous affront to your intelligence. A half-baked opinion that prompts you to immediately form a reaction. It might mock your favorite footballer. It might assail your favourite musician or actor. It might convey an absolutely outrageous idea about dating or marriage. Or attack something sacred to your identity—your country, your gender, your art, your hustle. Anything to hook you in so that you say something.
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| Illustration by Maria-Juliana Rojas. Images in Illustration by Vadym Kalitnyk/Getty Images; Adobe Stock,1 (image also used on Rolling Stone) |
You know it’s bait. You know it’s engineered to provoke. To draw you in by leaving a like, repost, or comment. And yet you click. You rage. You quote tweet. You comment, thinking: how can this person be so dumb/evil/wrong? How can they be so daft to let out something so stupid from their faulty mind? Among other questions of that sort. And by that time, the post has reached a million views. The formula would be working, perfectly so. It's like a fisherman/woman who's had a hugely successful day.
This, dear reader, is rage baiting—a rampant phenomenon that sits at the intersection of social media, psychology, and human nature. It dominates all social media platforms. And strangely enough, it almost always works. And we have to ask ourselves why this is so.
Let’s talk science, anonymity, sadism and why all social media platforms keep dragging us into the fire. The very flames we keep fanning by our reactions.
What is rage baiting?
Rage baiting can be simply described as a situation when someone deliberately (keyword is deliberately here) posts controversial, offensive, or seriously provocative content online to trigger an emotional, often angry, response. It thrives on reactions.
We see it in politics. In sport. On celebrity gossip pages. Even in niche cultural spaces. It’s everywhere—especially on Twitter/X, Facebook, and increasingly on TikTok. Reddit, to an extent. It’s not always accidental. It’s an intentional strategy. And according to a growing body of clinical literature, it taps directly into how our brains are wired.
So it's clear: rage baiting has surfaced as a carefully-thought strategy to inflate engagement. Reasons vary; for some, it is to bring in some dollars on monetized accounts. Others just do it for the "love of the game" to just provoke people, and they revel in the thousands of likes and reposts concomitant to this. Some of the takes are just so outrageous it becomes evident they have been crafted with the intention of eliciting visceral reaction.
But let's get a bit deeper into this phenomenon.
Why we fall for It: A psychological breakdown
1. Negativity bias
Our brains are designed to detect threats. We focus more on negative information than positive. Evolutionary psychologists argue this helped early humans survive danger. Better yet, to overreact to a threat than to ignore it.
Social media exploits this wiring. A 2017 study in PLOS ONE found that emotionally charged content, especially anger inducing posts, spread significantly faster on platforms like Twitter. The algorithm rewards posts of that nature.
So when someone posts something outrageous, our brains instinctively zero in on it. We don’t scroll past. We click. We react.
2. Emotional contagion
We don’t just feel emotions; we absorb them from others especially online. In 2014, a landmark study published in PNAS by Kramer et al. proved that emotional tone spreads on social media. When your feed is filled with rage, you're more likely to feel and express rage yourself. Rage bait, in other words, is infectious. And even if we may feel drained by such high emotions all the time, it is sometimes difficult to just scroll past. Even if you want to scroll past, the sheer amount of posts intended to incense a user through deliberate negative opinions just feels overwhelming; and it is greatly eroding the social media user experience.
3. Moral outrage feels righteous
Social media kind of sells identity. And when something threatens our identity or values, we feel morally obligated to respond.
Psychologist Molly Crockett’s 2017 paper in Nature Human Behaviour explains that moral outrage becomes a form of social currency online. Expressing it earns likes and reposts. It signals loyalty to your tribe.
But it also traps us in cycles of reactivity. Even when we know it’s bait, the need to be seen defending what’s right is irresistible.
Who’s posting the rage bait?
Here’s where things get darker.
1. The Dark Tetrad of trolls
Studies (notably by Buckels, Trapnell & Paulhus, 2014) show that many rage baiters score high in what’s called the Dark Tetrad of personality traits:
• Machiavellianism – strategic manipulation
• Narcissism – craving attention and validation
• Psychopathy – emotional coldness, impulsivity
• Sadism – enjoying the pain or discomfort of others
These people don’t want you to agree. They simply want you enraged. They win every time you comment angrily. That’s their dopamine hit.
2. The “everyday sadist”
Not all rage baiters are professional trolls. Some are just ordinary people who enjoy poking the bear. Clinical psychologists refer to this as “everyday sadism”—a low level enjoyment of causing discomfort, especially when there's no real world consequence. Social media gives them the perfect playground.
Rage for strategy: How Machiavellianism drives rage baiting online
Not all rage baiting is born from sadism. Sometimes, it’s not about enjoying your anger—it’s about using it.
There’s a cold, calculating side to rage bait that doesn’t care whether you’re happy or hurt. It’s only interested in outcomes: attention, clout, influence, power.
This is where Machiavellianism comes in.
Named after Niccolò Machiavelli, the Italian philosopher best known for The Prince, this personality trait is all about manipulation, cunning, and strategic deception. In the world of social media, Machiavellian rage baiters aren’t trolling for laughs or sadistic pleasure.
What Is Machiavellianism?
In psychology, Machiavellianism refers to people who are:
• Highly manipulative
• Emotionally detached
• Focused on personal gain at any cost
They’re strategic. They think three moves ahead. And they don’t need to believe what they’re saying—they just need you to believe it enough to react.
How Machiavellians use rage bait
1. Controversy = Engagement
Machiavellians understand the algorithm. They know that outrage drives clicks. So they’ll post the most divisive opinion—not because it’s true, but because it triggers you into sharing it, quote-tweeting it, boosting it.
To them, your rage is free marketing.
2. Playing both sides
They might switch positions later, play the victim, or reframe the conversation once the dust settles. The goal is never consistency—it’s control of the narrative.
3. Clout farming
These are the people who manufacture viral drama before a product drop, an album release, or a “big announcement.” Rage bait becomes a ladder to visibility.
The Shadow in all of us
Controversial psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson has spoken often about malevolence, particularly how platforms like Twitter amplify it.
“You want to find the monster in you and integrate it,” he says. “Otherwise, it controls you.”
Peterson believes that Twitter rewards our unexamined, impulsive, and often cruel instincts, especially when we feel morally superior. He has admitted to being pulled into those feedback loops himself.
His take? Rage bait works because most people haven’t confronted the darkest parts of their own nature. Their "shadow," as Carl Jung called it.
And when we don't, we project it onto others. Online, that projection becomes sport.
Why we can’t stop: Rage bait and the brain
Even when we’re aware of the game, we keep playing. Why?
1. Dopamine hits
Getting angry, responding, getting likes—it feels rewarding. It’s the same addictive loop as slot machines or video games.
2. Tribal identity
Rage bait often targets something personal; our nationality, race, gender, team, religion. We respond not just as individuals, but as tribes.
3. Online disinhibition effect
Clinical psychologist John Suler explained in 2004 that the internet lowers our inhibition:
• No eye contact
• No social consequences
• Instant gratification
You say things you’d never say in person. And people post things they’d never say to your face.
Any way forward?
The reality of social media today is that rage has become normal. The algorithms driving these platforms reward contentiousness, amplifying posts that provoke the strongest emotional reactions – anger, frustration, indignation. To stay relevant, creators and influencers are pressured to up the ante, crafting increasingly polarizing content to ensure engagement. Rage bait works because it thrives on a system designed to reward it.
The more we react, the more the cycle deepens. Yet, in the midst of this chaos, we have an opportunity to reclaim our digital spaces. Futile as that sounds.
But we have to be vigilant. We have to pay attention to how we engage online. Social media doesn’t have to be a battlefield for outrage. It can be meaningful, constructive, hell, even fun again. It starts with small but deliberate choices. Curate your timeline to prioritize positive, informative, or uplifting content. Follow creators and accounts that add value and steer clear of those whose sole aim is to provoke. And when you inevitably encounter rage bait, pause.
Take a moment to reflect before reacting. Not everything requires a comment, a like, or a repost. Sometimes, the most powerful response is no response at all; simply scrolling past can save you from this malaise.
For those feeling overwhelmed, deleting social media entirely might seem like a quick fix, but it doesn’t solve the deeper issue. Instead, we need to confront the problem and spread awareness. Talk about the ways algorithms manipulate us. Discuss how rage bait exploits our psychology. As a collective, we can work toward creating online environments that prioritize connection over conflict, dialogue over division.
Rage bait isn’t going away. It’s a feature, not a bug, of the platforms we use. But we can choose how we respond. By pausing, reflecting, and sometimes ignoring, we can resist the pull of negativity and reclaim social media as a space for creativity, joy, and meaningful interaction. Let’s strive to make it a tool for connection, not contention. An arduous task, but the effort may be worth it. It is definitely worth it.
ps: quite a number of X screenshots in this write-up because the authors of this piece spend copious amounts of time on that addictive platform.
• Buckels et al. (2014) – Trolls Just Want To Have Fun
• Crockett, M. J. (2017) – Moral outrage in the digital age
• Kramer et al. (2014) – Emotional contagion on Facebook
• Suler, J. (2004) – The Online Disinhibition Effect
• Peterson, J. – Lectures and interviews on malevolence, Twitter, and shadow integration
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