The mind game YouTubers play to make you click

Hey - It's Rory.

I want you to look at this thumbnail:

I know what you're thinking:

"Why on Earth does it have 23 million views?"

It's due to a term called "cognitive dissonance."

Today, I will teach you what that is, and how you can use it to create your own viral thumbnails.

Let's do this.

What is cognitive dissonance?

Cognitive dissonance is a feeling of mental discomfort that occurs when a person's beliefs, attitudes, or actions conflict with new information.

When this occurs, all your mind wants to do is resolve that feeling of discomfort.

How is it used in the marketing world?

Cognitive dissonance is used in the marketing world every single day.

You just haven't noticed.

A great example is Apple's "Shot on iPhone" campaign.

The tagline, "Shot on iPhone," immediately creates conflict in the viewer's mind.

Why is that?

Most people associate professional videography with high-end, expensive, cameras, not a device they carry in their pocket every day.

Your immediate response is:

"How can a phone produce such incredible videos?"

This builds tension in your mind as you don't know this information.

Your only way to resolve this tension is by learning more.

You visit Apple's website, read the phone's camera specs, and you may even buy the phone.

Congratulations, you fell into Apple's genius marketing trap.

How YouTubers use cognitive dissonance

Look at this thumbnail by Mark Tilbury:

What's the typical advice you give to someone in their 20s?

"You have so much time ahead of you."

Mark Tilbury knows that.

So he created cognitive dissonance is the viewer's mind by using the phrase: "You have no time left."

Suddenly, the viewer is shocked because their prior knowledge of advice for 20 year olds has been challenged.

This builds tension in their mind.

How do they resolve that tension?

By clicking on the video.

It's so simple but so effective.

How to create cognitive dissonance with your thumbnails

Now for the most exciting part.

I'm going to show you how to create cognitive dissonance with your own thumbnails.

For this example, I'm going to create a video in the fitness niche.

The best way to utilise cognitive dissonance is with informational/educational videos because this is the easiest way to challenge the viewer's belief.

After doing some research, I found these three videos that performed well for their creators:

From these, I came up with the video idea:

The Smartest Way to Get Abs in 60 Days

Video content:

I will teach the viewer how to lose weight by being in a calorie deficit, showing them how to create delicious, low-calorie meals, and a weekly lifting routine that helps them stay in shape, with the goal to get down to 10-12% in body fat.

The next step is to create our thumbnail.

But first, we need to think of a simple phrase that creates cognitive dissonance in the viewer's mind.

So, let's head over to ChatGPT:

You can use the same prompt for yourself:

I am creating a YouTube video with the title: [insert YouTube title]. In my thumbnail I want to add a phrase that creates cognitive dissonance to make the viewer have to click. Here are the rules: it must be no longer than 6 words. It must use 6th grade language. It must be engaging. Give me 20 different variations.

As you can see, it generated some good ideas.

However, after gaining inspiration from these, I came up with the phrase:

"Stop doing cardio."

I like this phrase for 3 reasons:

1) It relates to our video content (losing weight by being in a calorie deficit)

2) Most viewers believe the best way to get abs is by doing cardio (our phrase creates cognitive dissonance)

3) A lot of people want abs but hate doing cardio

And now it's time to create our thumbnail.

Here's the rough concept I created using AI:

And there we have it!

We've created a thumbnail using the power of cognitive dissonance.

But this is only a small part of what makes up a successful idea.

We still need to script, film, and edit the entire video. These are things I want to help you with.

That’s why I created 90-Day YouTube Accelerator.

I will create a 3-month content roadmap for you to follow to help you reach 10K subscribers.

YouTube has given me the opportunity to meet cool guys like this:

Thanks to this platform, my life has completely changed. And I want it to change your life too.

Thank you for reading.

Now get out there and create those thumbnails.

See you next Sunday,

Rory

P.S. Did you see how I used cognitive dissonance in the title of this newsletter?