welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj — always up to something in social good x tech. scroll to the end for a daily roundup of unique opportunities. :)
ragebaiting and dopamine 😇
unfortunately, i enjoy ragebaiting. i blame biology, though.
allow me to explain the neuroscience link between ragebaiting and dopamine spikes.
ragebaiting: when someone provokes others into anger or emotional overreaction (pretty common online, but i do this more irl).
dopamine: a neurotransmitter involved in the brain’s reward system. it’s released when we anticipate or receive a reward.
human emotion is pretty unpredictable — provoking someone is socially high-stakes and engages both attention and risk. this combination activates the brain’s reward circuitry. just like with gambling or risky sports, tension + outcome = a dopamine hit.
this could look like asking a guy who very obviously goes to the gym something like:
“do you gym?”
“yeah.”
“no, like recently?”
“…. yeah.”
“no, like i mean an actual gym.”
and then he’ll get pissed.
LMAO.
when someone successfully gets a rise out of someone else, it can feel like control or social dominance, which evolutionarily signalled higher status. the brain interprets that as a "win” and releases dopamine.
however, that dopamine hit can kick off a pretty addictive cycle of just… being a bad person.
ragebait → response → attention → dopamine.
this reinforces the behavior. there’s an important balance to strike in keeping it playful— it needs to be obviously a joke after the fact. that’s why I also keep my ragebaiting off social media. mass engagement through likes online introduces an even more addictive dopamine spike.
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teehee,
harsehaj
ragebaiting is THE method in the big 25
Bottom 3 substacks of all time