Surveys suggest people are spending more time angry. One reason may be their phones are programmed to fuel fury

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From absurd food recipes to fake political news, “rage bait” can be found in nearly every corner of the internet nowadays. So much so that the term was Oxford University Press’ 2025 word of the year (even if it’s actually two words). OUP defines it as: “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media account.”

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Rage bait works. The data suggest we really are getting angrier, on average, year over year. Gallup has been tracking the world’s emotional health since 2005 with an annual