Persuasive Technology: Irregularly Timed Rewards

If a reward is provided on a regular basis, the brain takes the same as a given, but if the same reward is irregular, the brain is primed to check again and again about the same. This is the same technique that is used in slot machines at gambling casinos.

Social media has been tremendously successful as it has been able to exploit this desire and addiction towards social affirmation, with random, irregular rewards.

• Discovered in 1957, Dopamine is one of 20 major neurotransmitters, brain chemicals that communicate between nerves and cells.
• In the 50s the chemical was associated with physical movement, which changed 30 years later when new experiments proved it to be associated with me...