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Clickbait isn't the problem: broken promises are [1]

['Ellsworth Toohey']

Date: 2025-12-09  

Justin Kuiper has spent eight years writing video scripts, which means he's spent eight years thinking about why people click on things. His Substack post on the psychology of clickbait offers a useful framework: the problem isn't curiosity-driven headlines. The problem is what happens after you click.

He cites behavioral economist George Loewenstein, who described curiosity as "an itch or discomfort that emerges from the information gap." Clickbait works by making you aware of what you don't know. You click to scratch the itch. That part is fine.

The issue is what Kuiper calls the "promise delta"—the gap between what the headline promised and what the article delivered. Payoff minus promise. If the number is negative, you feel cheated. Upworthy articles bury their answers under ad-laden filler. New York Times pieces give you actual information. Same headline structure, different outcomes.

The fix isn't to stop using curiosity. It's to earn the click.

Kuiper points to educational YouTubers like Veritasium, who use attention-grabbing titles but deliver real substance. Same approach Bill Nye used: entertain first, teach naturally. Don't disguise education as entertainment—integrate them.

Ethical clickbait satisfies the curiosity it creates. Unethical clickbait farms clicks without paying them off. The headline is just packaging. What matters is whether you kept your promise.

Previously:

• 'Clickbait'-esque titles work for academic papers too

• Excellent Photoshoppery: 'If Popular Books Had Clickbait Titles'

• The heartwarming story behind the internet's premier testicle clickbait site

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