Are you being tricked into working harder? (Indicator favorite)

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 December 2022

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we're sharing some of our favorite Indicator episodes from 2022! Today, we hear one of Adrian's favorite episodes. It originally came out in September.

"Gamification" as we know it has become increasingly common since the late 2000s. And proponents say adding game-like features to non-game activities — especially boring ones — can make us healthier, happier, and more productive. But Adrian Hon, who has made a career out of 'gamifying' mundane activities like jogging, says the trend has gone awry. Today on the show, Adrian argues that companies are using gamification to confuse, manipulate, or coerce people into doing things they wouldn't have done otherwise.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Adrian Mah here.
0:01.4	This week we've been replaying some of our favorite
0:03.5	indicator episodes from 2022.
0:05.7	And what you're about to hear is one of my favorites
0:07.7	because after I talk with this author,
0:10.2	it really made me realize how gamification has become
0:13.1	part of everyday life in ways that I didn't even
0:16.9	really think about.
0:18.0	OK, here's the show.
0:20.0	NPR.
0:21.2	So the other day I went for a run.
0:34.7	OK, here we go.
0:37.4	Yeah, as you could probably hear, I'm not in the best
0:42.6	shape and I hate running.
0:45.4	It hurts my feet, hurts my chest.
0:50.3	But then I came up on this app which promised to make
0:53.7	running a little more fun or at least less miserable
0:56.7	by turning it into a sort of game.
0:59.2	It's basically an audio adventure you listen to while jogging
1:02.2	and your mission is to outrun the undead.
1:05.6	You've come down in a whole of zombies.
1:08.1	They've heard the noise.
	...

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