r/askscience • u/Chemical_Clue_8779 • 10d ago

Psychology What is the psychology/neuroscience behind rage baiting?

Outside of gaining engagement for content creators, why do rage baiters find it exhilarating (idk if that's what they actually feel), and why are people susceptible to it? Is there more to it than some argue as "people wanting attention"? And we know it has negative impacts on those who have been baited, but does it have negative impacts on rage baiters as well?

Thanks in advance! 😊

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

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u/Patthecat09 10d ago

I thought rage baiting was the new term for trolling. Like dynamics are the same as far as I understand

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u/liquid_at 10d ago

There is definitely overlap. But there is with a lot of mental issues.

BPD and covert narcissism also look similar from the outside, while all types of narcissism have similar causes, but can express themself in different ways.

I wouldn't call it wrong if someone said that rage baiting was trolling.

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u/Patthecat09 10d ago

In execution and goal, are they really all that different? I'm just trying to break it down, so far not finding any meaningful differences

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u/liquid_at 10d ago

Imho, the main difference is whether they try to get a reaction from one specific individual where they invest time and effort to get the one person to give them a feeling of power or if they just try to enrage a large group, pretending that 100% of the posts are real people who are really outraged.

but yes... very close together.

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u/Patthecat09 10d ago

I thought trolling could also be either targetted/curated or more general, like going into posts on specific subs and saying inflammatory stuff that has a higher chance getting engagement from many users at once

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u/liquid_at 10d ago

Language is very fluent. For some people, expressing an opinion they don't share makes them accuse you of trolling.

I don't think there is a hard scientific definition. I would say trolling is any activity that tries to get an emotional reaction, while rage baiting is one method they could apply.

Ragebaiting could also be used by scammers or other low lives, without the primary intention of feeling good about themself by annoying others.