Intermittent reward schedules produce more persistent behavior than consistent rewards do

Evidence

In experiments pioneered by Skinner and repeated over the 1970s and 1980s, psychologists demonstrated (again using pigeons in boxes) the somewhat surprising truth that behavior consistently rewarded is in fact more prone to “extinction” than behavior inconsistently rewarded. While they may be initially slower to learn the connection between deed and consequence, pigeons rewarded after an inconsistent number of pecks kept at it. As psychologist David Myers comments, “Hope springs eternal.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 654

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the slot-machine economics and habit-formation literature in Skinnerian behaviorism; also resonates with the compulsive ‘checking’ mechanics later in the attention economy. — connects to: Variable reinforcement schedules can produce behaviors foreign to an animal’s natural repertoire — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1145; Likes function as variable-reward dopamine reinforcement driving user compulsion — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1459; Skinner showed animal behavior is conditioned by variable rewards and punishments — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 652 (+1 more)
• CANDY: ‘A slot machine that rewarded every pull would offer no thrill’ is a tweetable one-liner about why unpredictability hooks us.