Clickbait is Unreasonably Effective

This guy really just stood on a ladder and gave a power point presentation

"I'm terrible at making clickbait" says one of the people with the strongest title/thumbnail games on the platform. Seriously, the past two years of Veritasium has been a case study in how to make clickable videos while still respecting the intelligence of the audience.

When I first came across Veritasium I looked at the titles and thought "That's garbage, can't be true, clearly clickbait" and moved on. Then some of the researchers I worked with were talking (actually arguing) about a particularly interesting idea on a Veritasium vid, which got me to watch it - and I realised while the titles were absolutely crazy and hard to believe, they were also true. The great thing about this channel is that the team finds interesting and wild ideas that sound like they can't be true, and yet are - they use clickbait language that still manages to not be true (unlike so many that misinform willingly/intentionally). Bring on the legitbait!

I hate clickbait titles and thumbnails. I actively avoid videos and articles with them out of spite. I hate that they're effective, because that means they're never going away, and I have to see them constantly.

Props to Derek for permanently letting a projector shine into his eyes for the whole record.

You're genuine. I hate that anyone making click bait could hide behind this spectacular video, but you've exonerated yourself. Recently found and now love your videos.

I love the transparency of this video!!! Not only is this super helpful for the average viewer to be aware of, and the budding content creator to be aware of—but you're also able to highlight the values of you and your channel! I applaud the hell out of you for this. Seriously. Thank you

Day 1: “We need to talk about clickbait” Day 2: “Mr. Beast and I need to talk about clickbait” Day 3: "Mr. Beast and I almost died when we talked about clickbait"

Legitbait is a really cool term. Super interesting video! The reality is that you have to be interesting with your thumbnails and titles or people will not watch them so we always have used clickbait (hopefully closer to legitbait) in the hope that our videos then are actually filled with enough substance that people will leave satisfied. We never tried switching out thumbnails though, might experiment with that!

I use “clickworthy”

After this was posted I realized that your thumbnails are a perfect balance, in the title you state what the video is about, “the most misunderstood concept in physics”, but then to not withhold information, the thumbnail is one word “entropy” so the viewers get a taste on what the concept and video is about

I could not stop watching this video. You have opened my eyes to the very thing missing from my titles and thumbnails. As you have demonstrated in the video and with your thumbnail and title, it suddenly becomes clear to me. Very much appreciated, thank you.

Alternative title: "I CLICKBAITED My Audience And You WON'T BELIEVE What Happened Next 😨!!!"

I love anti-clickbait. It’s like “here’s the short answer, but we both know I made a video because the long answer is crazy interesting”, and like… fair.

I was to send Veritasium team a message exactly on this topic! I was getting your videos on my feed for sometime now, but avoiding them because the titles and thumbnails looked like clickbait. Last week I finally gave up and decided to watch one. I was so happy I had finally found a channel about science that is serious rather than sensational (on a personal note, this what I miss most about science channels on television)... And was thinking to myself, now that I know about the channel, I'd watch any video, even if the title sounds more "classical" or "boring". Now the reason is explained. Thanks for making the content that you make, see you around!

Thank you for this channel and all the work you guys have put into these videos. Never stop learning and exploring!

I remember back in 2009 Youtube had an option to report videos that had misleading titles or thumbnails. Nowadays if you do it they invite you to Youtube HQ and put you in a Rewind video.

The BEST non-clickbait clickbait video I've ever seen!

I like that the titles of your best videos sound a lot like good titles for newspaper articles... you're just using good journalism rules. Thank you for sharing this.

Thank you Veritasium, I appreciate how your videos are always well researched, well presented and done in a way making so that We are able to follow the things you talk about in all of your videos.😊