An Introduction to "Quantified Gamification."

 Have you ever played Cookie Clicker? It's a game where you click a gigantic cookie on the screen to create cookies. Every click produces one cookie, and once you have enough cookies, you can buy grandmas to bake cookies for you, then you can grow them on trees, and then you can make them in factories. However, throughout the process, you are simply watching numbers go up by performing menial labor. Why do people play Cookie Clicker for free, but demand wages from jobs that require similar motions?

I believe the difference is "immediate gratification." Seeing that number pop up in direct response to your action stimulates something inside the human brain. The simple fact of experiencing your reward immediately pushes you to perform that action again.

Let us now move our focus to casinos. People sit in front of machines that, broken down, are in the same category as switchboards. You pull a switch at the right time, as prompted by the machine. So how can people spend money for the privilege of pulling this switch over and over again?

It's all about the reward structure. Intermittent rewards provoke a higher pleasure response than rewards on a set schedule. 

So we have two things that cause people to perform repetitive actions: immediate reward, and intermittent reward. Thus, I propose a "universal gamification" plan to make menial jobs more rewarding and productive. Each employee will be issued a smart watch that runs a simple program. Say a worker is on an assembly line that breaks down chickens. Each time he performs the action, the watch will record that action and give an audible reward tone. That tone will then lead into a digital "slot machine" that will spin them for a chance to win various rewards from the company, from extra pay to more vacation days. Most of the time nothing will happen, but the chance for extra vacation days will greatly improve both worker productivity and morale.

I propose an experiment to test this hypothesis. I did go to college for psychology, after all, and I took several classes on this. 

Our null hypothesis: individuals, when given an immediate and random pleasurable stimulus after performing a simple action, will work as well as without them. 

Our alternate hypothesis: individuals, when given an immediate and random pleasurable stimulus after performing a simple action, will work faster, harder, and with more care. 

We will assign four groups to do basic data entry using computer terminals. The control group will have no stimulus, but will be paid for their time at the end of the experiment. Experimental group A will have smart watches that reward them with a small, pleasant "ding" after a set number of entries into the computer database. They will see a pop-up on the computer telling them "you have earned X cents" after each reinforcement, where X is relative to the work they have done. 

Group B will be given a chance to "spin the wheel" for a reward after they have completed the assessment in its entirety. They will also be compensated normally. 

Experimental group C will see a small randomizer with possible rewards that activates after the same number of entries as group A. Each time they complete a task unit, that randomizer will activate, and they will receive the rewards that they land on. 

We will count entry speed, entry accuracy, and issue a survey afterwards that asks them how much they enjoyed the experience. We will then employ statistical analysis on the results. 

I hope you enjoyed my implementation of the scientific method.