Hooked - Chapter 4 - Variable Reward

 Variable Reward

The nucleus accumbens is considered as the neural interface between motivation and action, playing a key role on feeding, sexual, reward, stress-related, drug self-administration behaviors, etc.

Nucleus accumbens not activating when the reward (in this case a monetary payout) was received, but rather in anticipation of it.

The study revealed that what draws us to act is not the sensation we receive from the reward itself, but the need to alleviate the craving for that reward.

Habits are brain's ability to quickly retrieve the appropriate behavioral response to a routine or process we have already learned.

However - when something breaks the cause-and-effect pattern we've come to expect, when we encounter something outside the norm, we suddenly become aware of it again.

Novelty sparks our interest, makes us pay attention, and we seem to love it.

Remember And Share Section (Summary of Points)

* Variable reward is the 3rd phase of the Hooked Model and there are 3 types of variable rewards: the Tribe, the Hunt, and the Self.

* Rewards of the tribe is the search for social rewards fueled by connectedness with other people.

* Rewards of the hunt is the search for material resources and information.

* Rewards of the self is the search for intrinsic rewards of mastery, competence, and completion.

* When our autonomy is threatened, we feel constrained by our lack of choices and often rebel against doing a behavior.  Psychologists refer to this as reactance.  Maintaining a sense of user autonomy and trust is a requirement for sustained engagement.

* Experiences with finite variability become increasingly predictable with use and lose their appeal over time.  Experiences that maintain user interest by sustaining variability with use exhibit infinite variability.

* Variable rewards must satisfy users' needs while leaving them wanting to reengage with the product.

Rewards of Tribe, the Hunt, and the Self.

Research by B.F. Skinner - how variability impacts animal behavior.

* Pigeons learned cause and effect of pull lever, get food.

* He then changed to give food after random number of taps instead of every time.

* The frequency pigeons tapped the lever "dramatically increased".

Adding variable increases frequency of completing intended action.

3 types of variable rewards (as proposed by Nir) - Tribe, Hung, and the Self.

1) Rewards of the tribe 

Our brain are adapted to seek rewards that make us feel accepted, attractive, important, and included.

Bandura social learning theory - Study shows people who observe someone being rewarded for a particular behavior are more likely to alter their own beliefs and subsequent actions.

Examples:

* Facebook / social media - variable reward is number of likes and shares .  Don't know how many or how well post will do beforehand.

* Stack Overflow - social accepted by good posts, these get votes and rise to top - this is why people spend a lot of time on these technical answers.  Upvotes and respect in their field is their payment.

* League of Legends - utilized Bandura's social learning theory - gave players ability to award points for sportsmanlike conduct worthy of recognition.  - This helped to combat trolls.  Overwatch does something similar with play of the game replay.

2) Rewards of the Hunt

Persistence hunting - Early humans out-enduranc'eded their prey.

The need to acquire physical objects, such as food and other supplies that aid our survival, is part of our brain's operating system.

Examples:

* Machine Gambling - Slot machines provide a classic example of variable rewards of the hunt.

By awarding money in random intervals, games of chance entice players with the prospect of a jackpot.

* Twitter - The "feed" is example - filled with mundane and relevant content.  This variety creates enticingly unpredictable user experience.

* Pinterest - As user scrolls to bottom of page - some images appear to be cut off - Images appear out of view below the browser fold.  These images offer a glimpse of what's ahead, even if just barely visible.

3) Rewards of the Self

The rewards of the self - fueled by "intrinsic motivation" - Self determination theory espouses that people desire, among other things - to gain a sense of competency.  Adding an element of mystery to this goal makes the pursuit all the more enticing.

Examples:

* Video games - Defining feature of games - advancing character, gaining skills/powers, etc, visit uncharted lands, etc.

* Email -  google made "Priority Inbox" to give users a sense of progress when their inboxes are just crazy full.

* Codecademy.

Variable Rewards are NOT a free pass!

Can backfire - take Quora example - 

* Quora beat another company Mahalo (that was offering monetary incentive to answer questions) because it tapped into the "why" of its users - namely the desire for social recognition over getting paid small amounts (quora has upvote system).  Quora gained a TON of users.

** Quora's social rewards proven more attractive than Mahalo's monetary rewards.

Only by understanding what truly matters to users can a company correctly match the right variable reward to their intended behavior.

-> When mismatch between customer's problem and company's assumed solution, no amount of gamification will help spur engagement.

Maintain a Sense of Autonomy - 

People love autonomy - knee-jerk reaction to being told what to do. (This is called "reactance").

Study has shown if you add "But you are free to accept or refuse." at end, that it restores people's autonomy and they DOUBLE THE EFFECTIVENESS of asking someone to do something!!! 

Example: 

Fitocracy app vs MyFitnessPal - Fitocracy leverages this autonomy and social interaction more.

Companies that successfully change behaviors present users with an implicit choice between their old way of doing things and a new, more convenient way.

Companies fail to change user behaviors because they do not make their services enjoyable for its own sake, often asking users to learn new, unfamiliar actions instead of making old routines easier.

Beware of finite variability

Example - breaking bad - each episode present problem, mystery, solution and new problem at end to keep audience tuning in.

Experience-taking - Shown that people who read a story about a character actually feel what the protagonist is feeling. (see "Changing Beliefs and Behavior through Experience-Taking" - In Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 103, no. 1 July 2012 1-19,

Element of mystery is an important component of continued user interest - example: Zynga cloned their successful FarmVille game, but it was just the same game with different settings so players lost interest.

Experiences with finite variability become less engaging because they eventually become predictable.

Infinite Variability - sustains variability - example is games played by other people, open ended (Minecraft) - as opposed to story-based games/completion-based games.

TODO - Study Hades about variable reward.

Inherent Variability

Give users what htey desperately crave in conditions of low control - a sense of agency.

Example - Uber showing car on streets in app , where it is - users can't control traffic, but seeing it on their phone gives them a sense of control.

Which rewards should you offer?

Fundamentally, variable reward system's should try to utilize multiple types (all 3 types) of variable rewards.

Example

* Email - Reward of the tribe - Social obligation to respond to emails and desire to be seen as agreeable.

* Email - Reward of the hunt - Checking email informs us of opportunities or threats to our material possessions and livelihood.

* Email - Reward of the self - Act of eliminating all unread messages.  Motivated by uncertain nature of our fluctuating email count and feel compelled to gain control.