The Action

• BF Skinner, a psychologist, found that if an action gives a variable, unpredictable reward, it is more frequently used and is addictive.
• Like a slot machine, the reward is not something that the user knows beforehand, providing a sense of wonder, intrigue and mystery.
• In t...

... towards doing something can be external, like a ‘click here’ button, or internal, like an emotion or craving. A successful trigger graduates from being an external one into something inbuilt in the user.

Example: One feels lonely or bored and instinctively opens Facebook.

The technological tools we use keeps us connected to the people that matter to us, and the text (later rich text message) is one of the oldest ways of communication since portable phones came into existence.

It also has a hidden secret that makes us keep checking it.

... deployed by the messaging software and many other products is composed of:

1. Trigger
2. Action
3. Variable Reward
4. Investment

Understanding these four steps makes us see the hidden psychology behind a user's daily tech habits.

There is a push provided to the user to ‘invest’ in the service so that there are variable rewards in the future. This can be anything from uploading a new profile picture to set a status update for all to see.

The investment increases the probability of the next trigger happenin...