Overview
- Oxford Languages selected “rage bait” as the 2025 Word of the Year after more than 30,000 public votes, noting that usage has tripled over the past year.
- The term denotes online posts crafted to elicit anger to boost traffic and comments, a tactic reinforced by algorithms that reward any engagement and by creator payouts tied to volume.
- Researchers highlight a human negativity bias and the loss of natural cooling‑off periods on always‑on platforms as factors that accelerate the spread of outrage.
- Recent reporting describes looser enforcement by major platforms in 2025 that left more room for provocative content, despite stated rules against violent or disturbing material.
- Recommended responses include avoiding engagement, media‑literacy training shown in a 2020 study to build resistance, and emerging reflection nudges, with public platform data helping researchers test what works.