Are dislikes counted as interaction?

I remember a post a couple of years ago by @Wreckless Eating who has contacts at the YouTube Space in Los Angeles and he specifically asked the question about likes / dislikes and other forms of engagement etc. I've tagged him so maybe he'll post in this thread to confirm. :) If my memory serves me right - The answer from YT was "yes" that all types of engagement (likes, dislikes, commenting, favouriting, sharing) benefit a video because they involve the viewer taking ACTION and in the lazy world of internet users, taking ACTION is significant. Basically anything that is in the "engagement" reports in analysis helps a video.

HOWEVER, out of all the types of engagement, "likes" and "dislikes" (equally) have the least effect, ie they are the weakest. It makes sense if you think about it because a "like" or "dislike" is just 1 click. It takes the least effort.

And the most important thing that came out of the conversation was that above all types of engagement, the KING is watch time in terms of determining how successful a video becomes. To put it in perspective, I can't remember the exact figures, but it was something like an extra 5 seconds of average watch time is worth 1000 likes / dislikes. It also makes sense. The bottom line is YouTube wants people spending more time on their platform. Conclusion, likes/dislikes count and do help but it's more productive to find techniques to increase watch time rather than asking for likes and/or worrying about dislikes. ^^
 
Kinda depends on if they actually watched the video and disliked it..... or if they're just going on all your videos and disliking them without even seeing them just because they hate you.
 
So what happens if you hide your likes/dislikes? Do the likes and dislikes still count as interaction? If that's the case, and you have a bad video with hundreds of dislikes, but nobody can see that, it wouldn't negatively affect your viewer response.
 
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