After pondering for a while on why I’m so fixated on making meaningless numbers (such as LW karma or Khan Academy points) go up as a result of my actions, I came up with a hypothesis: the brain uses such numbers as a proxy for societal status. An experimental consequence of this idea is that status-seeking people and low-status people try harder (possibly also for longer periods of time) to achieve video game-style “points”.
Just a thought, really. If this experiment has actually been done, it’d be cool to read about it if anyone has a link. I don’t have the resources to do it myself. Anyone reading this comment who can do it is certainly free to, but I doubt that’s the case.
Came up with the idea while responding to a question on Formspring.
After pondering for a while on why I’m so fixated on making meaningless numbers (such as LW karma or Khan Academy points) go up as a result of my actions, I came up with a hypothesis: the brain uses such numbers as a proxy for societal status. An experimental consequence of this idea is that status-seeking people and low-status people try harder (possibly also for longer periods of time) to achieve video game-style “points”.
Just a thought, really. If this experiment has actually been done, it’d be cool to read about it if anyone has a link. I don’t have the resources to do it myself. Anyone reading this comment who can do it is certainly free to, but I doubt that’s the case.
Came up with the idea while responding to a question on Formspring.
It’s called a token economy. Game developers use dark arts in all kinds of ways to keep people playing; they even employ PhD psychologists.
Citation? (I don’t doubt you, just curious)
http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/people.html
http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2009/GDC2009_ValvesApproachToPlaytesting.pdf
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/03/25/the-sunk-cost-fallacy/
http://www.psychologyofgames.com/
http://www.mauronewmedia.com/blog/2011/02/why-angry-birds-is-so-successful-a-cognitive-teardown-of-the-user-experience/
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3085/behavioral_game_design.php?page=1
Thanks!
Good idea. Maybe net worth comes in the same sense, except less meaninglessly?
Other examples:
Number of facebook friends High score in Temple Run