I am a TV Jeopardy fan. Last week, they had a clue for which the answer was rage bait. I had heard the term and knew that answer. However, I later found out that it was not that well known. It is a behavior that preys on your emotions for a response. Therefore, it is appropriate for this column.

Let me start with an example. Assume you saw two headlines. One said: “New cystic fibrosis treatment improves quality of life for patients.” The second one says: “New controversy in the transgender college sports debate”

The question is which article would you read. Both headlines are aimed at getting attention. The one about cystic fibrosis tends not to stir emotions. It goes by the term clickbait. The purpose is to get you to read about something in which you have an interest.

However, the topic of transgender athletes in college sports is more emotionally charged for some individuals and may engender a response for that reason. That would be more of an example of rage bait.

Of interest is the fact that cystic fibrosis occurs in one out of 5,000 individuals. Only six percent of college students play varsity sports. The incidence of trans-men is 0.3 percent. If you do the math, it works out to affect one out of 5,555 college students. Therefore, there is no difference in the incidence of the two topics.

Rage bait is defined as intentional emotionally charged content being presented. The goal is to provoke emotions in the individual reading the headline. The content creators carefully construct things to get the maximum emotional effect.

They intentionally do it out of context. That guarantees more emotion than something more detailed. The goal is to get a subconscious response to the material. That response, in turn, may generate additional responses. The creators then get credit for all of the furor.

One might ask why people would do this. The main reason is their inherent narcissism. Even negative attention is still attention.

Sometimes it is done purely for profit because it creates ad revenue for both the creator of the content and the platform that shows it.

Sometimes the manipulator helps control the conversation. That forces the audience to react in a way that the author desires.

The recommended approach is to recognize that the emotion that the headline generates is driving you. There is a method called the STOP method. The first thing is to stop before opening it. The second is to take a deep breath. The third step is to observe what your emotional reaction is. The fourth step is to proceed mindfully.

The goal is to remove as much emotion from the process as possible. Once you do that, then you are the one with control of your emotions. It no longer belongs to the creator of the content.

Maybe you should not take the bait at all. Perhaps you should go watch an episode of Jeopardy. You already know one of the answers.