Addiction by Design
You might also be aware that all this is delivered by means of “persuasive design”—an umbrella term for an armory of psychological techniques borrowed directly from the designers of casino slot machines, for the express purpose of encouraging compulsive behavior. One example among hundreds is the ubiquitous drag-down-to-refresh gesture, which keeps... See more
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
“Gamblers appear to violate the law of effect,” Skinner wrote, “because they continue to play even though their net reward is negative. Hence it is argued that they must be gambling for other reasons.”
Brian Christian • The Alignment Problem
Variable-ratio schedules are unpredictable because the number of responses between reinforcers varies. Telemarketers, salespeople, and slot machine players are on this schedule because they never know when the next sale or the next big win will occur.