Rage bait

A title or thumbnail is rage bait when its main job is provoking irritation. Wrong-on-purpose claims, a smug face, a take framed to insult a group, a number chosen to annoy. It works in the short term because anger produces comments and comments look like engagement.

The problem is what happens after the click. YouTube's systems weigh whether viewers stayed and were satisfied, so a video that only harvests outrage tends to burn out, and the audience it collects came for a fight. Honest packaging can still be provocative. The test is whether the video delivers what the thumbnail promised.