Product Gamification: what is that thing (Part 2)

Why it works

Okay, we know the context. But the fact that some dude, albeit with the regalia, claims something is not proof.

The first thing we’ll pay attention to is that gamification contains a game, and adults love to play as much as children. There is no doubt that most adults are playing games, but what about the evidence for the octalysis model itself? The latest (and not even the latest) research in neurophysiology and cognitive biases help us with this issue.

Endowment Effect

The owner overestimates his product significantly. Or according to Wikipedia, people are more likely to retain an object they own than acquire that same object when they do not own it.

One of the most famous examples of the endowment is from a study by Daniel Kahneman, an Israeli psychologist and economist notable for his work on the psychology of judgment and decision-making, Jach Knetsch, a Distinguished Professor of Economics & Richard Thaler, a Professor of Economics. Experimental participants were given a mug and asked for the price they would sell it. It turned out that the amount required as compensation for the mug was twice as high once their ownership of the mug had been established.

This case is not about seeking benefits, but about the psychological aversion of losses. Endowment Effect confirms primarily the fourth stimulus of the Octalysis, “ownership and possession”, and briefly captures the eighth stimulus, “loss and avoidance.”

The Sunk Cost Fallacy

Irrecoverable costs — all kinds of costs, which have already been incurred and cannot be recovered. When individuals commit the sunk cost, they experience a sense of loss: wasted time and money haunt for a long time.

A person does not forget about such costs, because he experiences a sense of loss more acutely than a sense of gain. Daniel Kahneman in his book “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, explains the origin of this effect as follows.

An ability to sense impending danger is much more in common than a desire to maximize utility. This is why the prospect of loss became a stronger psychological motivator.

The more time and energy a person spends on the game, the less he wants to leave it. I think you guessed the eighth stimulus, “loss and avoidance.”

Buyers Stockholm Syndrome

Its more scientific name is post-purchase rationalization.

In short: this is a cognitive bias that forces us to prove to everyone (first to ourselves) that the purchase made was necessary and the product was the best of all alternatives, even if we’re not satisfied with the product and don’t want to admit it.

Again, that is fourth and eighth stimuli.

You don’t need anyone and never force to play

“Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” Mark Twain

Play becomes work when a person is forced. Do not force people to play or to get involved in game mechanics.

Examples

There are projects in which gamification is difficult to classify as “external” or “internal. Kevin Werbach and Dan Hunter in “For the Win. How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business” called such projects“ Behavior Changing”.

The Fun Theory campaign run by Volkswagen is a great example.

A diagram from the book:

An example of gamification from the lower right quadrant would be the speed reduction campaign (The Swedish Speed Camera Lottery And Healthy Living). As a result, the average flow rate dropped from 32 km h to 25 km/h.

Incentive system

We need to understand what incentive sheme is in order to justify the remaining key octalisation incentives. The main object of interest is dopamine.

We’ll start with laboratory rats. James Old and Peter Milner, two neuroscientists at McGill University, accidentally inserted electrodes into a rat’s pleasure center. Constant electrical stimulation of septal area and other regions of rat made them ignore the world around, and rats died of thirst or something worse. It was later revealed that rats suffered from excess dopamine.

Dopamine doesn’t cause euphoria, it excites and carries us with the goal. The chance to reward motivates us. Research shows that you can destroy the entire dopamine system in a rat’s brain, but it will still make a happy face if you feed it sugar. However, you can’t make the rat work for a delicacy. It rat loves sugar but doesn’t want it until gets it.

That are the second and the third key principle (“accomplishment” and “creativity and feedback”). After each achievement, even a virtual one, dopamine is released. ­­