The reason why people use traffic bots, as well as view inflation software of crowdsourcing to grow a YouTube channel, is straightforward.
Imagine you are visiting a city that you've never been to before.
Imagine that you want Chinese food, so you see this Chinese restaurant, and it's completely empty.
You sit down, and you feel uneasy because, in the middle of prime dinner hours, you're the only customer.
Would you want to find yourself in that situation?
Chances are, if you're like most consumers, you will get the hell out of there.
This is called the "empty restaurant effect."
There is a strong psychological connection between the lack of activity or the lack of other customers and the quality of the food.
Now, as somebody who has eaten at more than their fair share of restaurants, I can tell you that that assumption is flat-out wrong.
I've been to many restaurants that had zero customers at the time that I was there, and the food was amazing.
But psychologically, this is how most people are wired to think.
The same applies to YouTube videos.
If you come across a YouTube video and it says two views, but the title, as well as the description, speak to your needs, what would you do?
Chances are, if you're like most people, you will click away because you're thinking to yourself:
"Okay, this seems like the stuff that I want to watch, but since nobody has watched it before me, chances are, it probably doesn't deliver on its title.
It probably isn't very good."
This is why SMM service providers are in business.
People hire them to inflate YouTube channel views, not because those views will actually translate into revenues.
Instead, they provide social proof.
Imagine a company stuffing a Chinese restaurant with manikins.
So when you look to the window from the outside, it seems that there's a lot of people there, so you're more likely to come in.
Of course, in the real world, it can't work this way because people can immediately see that they're manikins.
But in the online world, who is to know if 80%, 90%, or even 100% of that view count is bogus?
But the effect on the potential viewer is nonetheless real.
They are more likely to click the play button because, in their mind, there is already some sort of proof that this stuff is worth viewing.