Are you being tricked into working harder?

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"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.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:03.0	Music
0:11.0	So the other day I went for a run.
0:15.0	Okay, here we go.
0:18.0	Yeah, as you could probably hear,
0:22.0	I'm not in the best shape and I hate running.
0:25.0	It's, uh, hurts my feet,
0:28.0	hurts my chest.
0:30.0	It's somehow painful,
0:33.0	but also boring at the same time.
0:36.0	Painful and boring?
0:38.0	Yeah, that's what I'm looking for in a hobby.
0:40.0	Why do people put themselves through this?
0:43.0	You know, but then I came up on this app
0:46.0	which promised to make running a little more fun
0:49.0	or at least less miserable by turning it into a sort of game.
0:52.0	It's basically an audio adventure you listen to while jogging
0:56.0	and your mission is to outrun the undead.
0:59.0	You've come down in a horde of zombies.
1:02.0	They've heard the noise. They're coming. Run.
1:05.0	Run!
1:07.0	Wow, so it didn't work.
	...

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