Clickbait writes headlines, titles, or thumbnails that overpromise, exaggerate, or exploit a curiosity gap to maximize clicks regardless of whether the content delivers. It is the headline-level, industrial-scale application of the curiosity gap, usually stacked with exaggeration and negativity.
Its observable structure is a mismatch: the headline promises more, or something other, than the content provides — a withheld shock (“what happened next…”), an inflated claim, a manufactured outrage. Because publishers and creators are often paid per click and impression, the headline is optimized to win the click as an end in itself, decoupled from the substance beneath. An honest headline compresses the article so you can decide whether to open it; clickbait is engineered so the click happens before and instead of an informed decision.
It shades into rage-bait when the lever is provoked anger rather than curiosity, and into disinformation when the gap between headline and truth is the point — exploiting that many people share on the headline alone without reading.