MARSHMALLOW EXPERIMENT
First, I should note that Scott your link is no longer correct. http://youtu.be/QX_oy9614HQ This link will take you to the video that I'm guessing you wanted us to see.
This was a really cute video that packed a powerful punch. The experiment shows different test subjects (children) that are placed in a room with a marshmallow. They are told that if they are patient and wait to eat the marshmallow until the leader comes back in the room they will get two marshmallows. Knowing children and their love of all sugary things, we come to expect that most will not be able to wait. We get to see them agonizing over whether they should wait or not.
*SPOILER ALERT*
It turns out that most of the children do, in fact, wait until the leader comes back in the room. The motivation of having another is definitely enough to wait to eat the marshmallow.
The fact that this experiment uses kids is interesting to me because we don't credit them with much critical thinking. If you were to test adults this same way I think you would have to use something much different than a marshmallow. Money, perhaps. Regardless, the results from this test show us that we are willing to go through more waiting if we are thoroughly motivated.
The show Community had an episode where they did a social experiment with waiting. I highly recommend you check it out.
Teaser:
http://youtu.be/5_2IR454jQg
Full episode (you have to pay for it but it's worth it):
http://youtu.be/uH0Iq_ZBpHQ
CHAPTER SYNOPSIS
Chapter six focuses on how people are motivated. As a designer, it's important to engage and motivate your users to create "repeat customers." It's surprising to learn in this chapter that the typical thought of using money as motivation is not always the best option.
As we discussed last week, people are motivated to complete a task the closer they are to the end of the goal. This is called the goal-gradient effect. People tend to focus on whats left than what is completed. However, once a customer has reached a reward they are at higher risk of becoming a lost customer, or at least taking a break from the service.
Rewarding is really important and interesting as motivation. The chapter talks about the casino and how they use a variable reward schedule. Your reward must be desirable to the audience. You might be surprised to learn that people are more responsive to intrinsic rewards than extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic motivation is like playing a board game because its exciting, not because you win money at the end. Extrinsic motivation is like studying so that the reward will be a better grade. If you are using extrinsic rewards it is important to keep it unexpected.
This chapter talks about dopamine and how it aids in making people addicted to seeking information. It ties in the fact that small amounts of information keep people interested in searching to find more. People are also motivated by progress and mastery. There are a few more important take-aways: the ability to delay gratification starts young (see marshmallow experiment), people are inherently lazy, forming a habit takes a long time, people like to do things themselves, and people are motivated to compete when there are fewer competitors.
CHAPTER ANALYSIS
This chapter was very interesting and so far has felt like one of the most important chapters. I do believe that there are a few conflicting points. For example, the book talks about how people are motivated to compete when there are less competitors. I feel like this contradicts the statement that people do things for a challenge (when discussing intrinsic vs extrinsic rewards). Personally, I prefer to be challenged. I can honestly say that I have felt deterred from something before if there was a lot of entries, however, when it comes to trivia night, for example, I prefer to play where there are the most teams for a better challenge.
One thing that I found strangely humorous was the section about how people are motivated by progress. I was just having a conversation the other day where I described to Charles the strange psychological feelings of seeing a percentage of completeness on a social network profile. Facebook has recently adopted a bar that shows "how complete" your profile is. My immediate response is to feel somewhat incomplete if my profile is not at 100%. I feel like I need to fill in all of the information in my profile so that I will get a reader bar that shows 100% complete. However, I do not feel like it is necessary to have all of the information the website is asking me for (privacy purposes). It is an interesting idea to play on this idea that people want to be "complete."
Overall, I felt that this chapter had some great take aways for a designer to utilize. Rewarding can be helpful to bring repeat customers. Habit forming takes a long time and it's important for you as a designer to be patient when "training" your users.
RELATED LINKS
http://youtu.be/u6XAPnuFjJc
RSA Animate video based on a Dan Pink's speech about how we are motivated.
http://youtu.be/wfcro5iM5vw
Dan Ariely Ted Talk discussing the essence of human motivation.
http://zenhabits.net/get-off-your-butt-16-ways-to-get-motivated-when-youre-in-a-slump/
How to get out of your slump and get motivated by Leo Babauta.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2013/07/19/how-to-stay-motivated-and-accomplish-anything/
How to be motivated and accomplish anything from Forbes magazine.
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