TIKTOK'S ADDICTIVE PSYCHOLOGY EXPLAINED IN UNDER 7 MINUTES!!! (BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE!)

Summary

The video script explores the addictive nature of TikTok, comparing it to a Skinner box experiment where users are rewarded with entertaining content upon opening the app. It delves into the platform's frictionless design, variable rewards, and the habit-forming swiping motion. The script also discusses the psychology behind the endless scroll and suggests a 'stop screen' nudge for a more humane user experience, questioning the audience's thoughts on TikTok's success.

Takeaways

• 🔥 TikTok's addictive nature is likened to a Skinner box, where users are rewarded with content as soon as they open the app, similar to a rat pushing a lever for food.
• 🎮 The app's design removes the initial decision point, immediately launching users into a video that the algorithm predicts they will enjoy, creating a positive reinforcement loop.
• 😄 TikTok's content is designed to be rewarding, eliciting dopamine release through funny, educational, or attractive videos.
• 🎰 The unpredictability of the next video's reward value (variable rewards) is a key factor in TikTok's addictiveness, akin to gambling on a slot machine.
• 👍 The swiping motion to move to the next video is a simple behavior that TikTok aims to turn into a habit, facilitated by the app's full-screen design and ease of swiping.
• 🔁 The short duration of TikTok videos allows for frequent repetitions of the swiping action, reinforcing the habit-forming process.
• ♾ The endless scroll feature of TikTok eliminates decision points, contributing to the perception of time loss and continuous engagement.
• 🛑 A suggested 'stop screen' nudge could offer a humane way to break the cycle of endless scrolling and encourage users to disengage from the app.
• 📈 The simplicity of the swiping action and the frequency of variable rewards create a 'perfect storm' for habit formation and addiction.
• 🤔 The video invites viewers to consider what makes TikTok so successful and encourages them to reflect on their own experiences and reasons for using the app.
• 📺 The channel is close to reaching a milestone of a thousand subscribers and encourages viewers to subscribe and engage with the content.

Q & A

What is the comparison made between the user experience of TikTok and a Skinner box?

The comparison is made to illustrate the immediate reward system in TikTok, similar to a rat in a Skinner box that gets food when it pushes a lever. When a user opens TikTok, they are immediately rewarded with a video, creating a positive reinforcement loop that makes the app addictive.

Why does TikTok start playing videos automatically upon opening the app?

TikTok starts videos automatically to remove the initial decision point that other platforms like YouTube require, where users have to choose what to watch. This 'frictionless' design immediately rewards the user for opening the app, increasing the likelihood of continued use.

What is the role of dopamine in the addictive nature of TikTok?

Dopamine is a rewarding hormone that is released when users watch videos on TikTok that they find entertaining, educational, or attractive. The variable nature of the content keeps the dopamine response unpredictable, making the app more addictive.

How does the unpredictability of the next video on TikTok contribute to its addictiveness?

The unpredictability of the next video creates a variable reward system, akin to gambling, where users swipe to find out if the next video will be rewarding or not. This uncertainty makes the experience more engaging and addictive.

What is the psychological concept behind the swiping motion on TikTok?

The swiping motion is a behavior that TikTok aims to turn into a habit. It is a simple action that, when repeated frequently with variable rewards, can quickly become automatic, contributing to the app's addictive nature.

Why are the short video lengths on TikTok significant in habit formation?

Short video lengths allow for many repetitions in a short amount of time, which increases the likelihood of the swiping motion becoming a habit. The more a user swipes, the stronger the habit becomes.

What is the 'endless scroll' feature of TikTok, and how does it affect the user experience?

The 'endless scroll' is a design feature that allows the content to keep loading without any breaks or decision points. This continuous stream of content can lead to users spending hours on the app without realizing it.

What is the proposed 'nudge' idea to help users disengage from TikTok?

The proposed nudge is a 'stop screen' that appears after a certain amount of time, preventing further swiping and offering a break in the experience. This could help users take a pause and potentially reduce excessive use of the app.

How does the lack of decision points in TikTok's design contribute to its addictiveness?

The absence of decision points eliminates the need for users to consciously choose what to watch next, allowing them to passively consume content. This seamless experience can lead to prolonged use and increased addictiveness.

What is the comparison made between TikTok and slot machines in terms of user engagement?

The comparison highlights the similarity between swiping on TikTok and pulling the handle of a slot machine. Both actions involve an element of chance and the possibility of a rewarding outcome, which can be highly engaging and addictive.

What is the role of behavioral science in understanding TikTok's user experience?

Behavioral science helps to analyze the design choices and psychological triggers in TikTok that contribute to its addictive nature, such as positive reinforcement, variable rewards, and habit formation.

Outlines

00:00

🎮 The Psychology Behind TikTok's Addictive Design

This paragraph delves into the addictive nature of the TikTok app, comparing it to a Skinner box where users are rewarded with content as soon as they open the app. Unlike other platforms, TikTok immediately starts playing a video, removing the initial decision point and encouraging positive reinforcement. The paragraph explains how the app's design, using principles from behavioral science and psychology, creates a frictionless user experience that is both rewarding and habit-forming. It highlights the role of variable rewards in maintaining user engagement, drawing parallels to gambling and slot machines, and discusses the simplicity of the swiping motion as a key to forming a quick habit.

05:01

🔄 The Endless Scroll and TikTok's Choice Architecture

The second paragraph focuses on the endless scroll feature of TikTok, which eliminates decision points and contributes to the app's addictive quality by providing a continuous stream of content. The paragraph discusses the absence of breaks in the user experience, which can lead to users losing track of time. It also introduces a nudge idea by Dan Benoni from growthdesign.com, suggesting a 'stop screen' to interrupt the endless scrolling and encourage users to take a break. This humane approach is presented as a potential improvement to TikTok's brand image, shifting the comparison from a harmful addiction to a more enjoyable, controlled experience. The paragraph concludes by inviting viewers to share their thoughts on TikTok's success and to engage with the content by liking, subscribing, and turning on notifications.

Keywords

💡Skinner Box

A Skinner box is a type of experimental apparatus used in behavioral research to condition subjects, typically animals, to perform certain actions for rewards. In the video, it's used metaphorically to describe the instant gratification users receive when they open the TikTok app, likening the experience to a rat pressing a lever to get food, emphasizing the app's addictive nature.

💡TikTok

TikTok is a social media platform known for its short-form videos. The video discusses TikTok's addictive user experience, highlighting how its design encourages continuous use. The script mentions TikTok surpassing two billion downloads, indicating its widespread popularity and successful user engagement strategies.

💡Behavioral Science

Behavioral science is an interdisciplinary field that studies human behavior and decision-making. The video uses concepts from behavioral science to analyze TikTok's design and its impact on user behavior, such as the removal of decision points and the use of variable rewards to create positive reinforcement loops.

💡Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is a psychological concept where a behavior is increased in frequency by the addition of a reward. The script explains that TikTok's immediate video playback upon app opening serves as a reward, reinforcing the user's action of opening the app and making it more likely to be repeated.

💡Variable Rewards

Variable rewards refer to the unpredictable nature of the rewards, which can make a behavior more engaging and addictive. The video describes how the uncertainty of the next video's content on TikTok, ranging from highly entertaining to less interesting, keeps users swiping in anticipation, contributing to the app's addictiveness.

💡Dopamine

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward. The script mentions that TikTok's rewarding videos trigger dopamine release, creating a pleasurable experience that users seek to replicate by continuing to use the app.

💡Habit Formation

Habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes automatic through repetition. The video explains that the simplicity of the swiping motion on TikTok, combined with its frequent repetition due to short video lengths, quickly turns this action into a habit.

💡Endless Scroll

Endless scroll refers to the design feature of a platform that continuously loads new content as the user scrolls down, eliminating the need for decision points. The script points out that TikTok's endless scroll contributes to the loss of track of time and the addictive nature of the app.

💡Nudge

A nudge is a gentle push or suggestion designed to influence behavior in a certain direction without强制ing. The video suggests a 'stop screen' nudge for TikTok to encourage users to take a break from endless scrolling, aiming to make the app's usage more humane and less addictive.

💡Decision Point

A decision point is a moment in a user's experience where they must make a choice. The script contrasts TikTok's design with other platforms like YouTube, where creators must compete for attention at decision points, whereas TikTok removes these points to streamline the viewing experience.

💡User Experience (UX)

User experience (UX) is the overall experience a user has while interacting with a system or product. The video discusses TikTok's UX design, which is described as 'aggressively frictionless,' meaning it is designed to minimize obstacles and maximize ease of use, enhancing the app's addictive potential.

Highlights

TikTok's user experience is compared to a Skinner box, where users are rewarded with content as soon as they open the app.

TikTok surpasses 2 billion downloads, indicating a successful user experience design.

TikTok's design removes the initial decision point by starting video playback immediately upon app opening.

The immediate video playback on TikTok leads to positive reinforcement, increasing the likelihood of app usage.

TikTok videos are designed to be rewarding, releasing dopamine and making the app addictive.

Variable rewards in TikTok, such as unpredictable video content, enhance the addictive nature of the app.

The swiping motion on TikTok is likened to a lever in a Skinner box, creating a habit-forming behavior.

TikTok's habit-forming swiping motion is simple and easy to perform, making it quickly become automatic.

The short duration of TikTok videos allows for frequent repetitions, reinforcing the swiping habit.

TikTok's endless scroll design eliminates decision points, contributing to hours of lost time while using the app.

A proposed nudge for TikTok is a stop screen to prevent endless scrolling and encourage disengagement.

The stop screen nudge is suggested as a humane way to improve TikTok's brand image and user experience.

The video discusses the psychological and behavioral science behind TikTok's addictive design.

TikTok's content is compared to gambling, with users not knowing the reward value of the next video.

The video explains how the simplicity of the swiping motion on TikTok contributes to its addictiveness.

The endless scroll on TikTok is identified as a key component of its addictive user experience.

The video concludes by asking viewers for their thoughts on TikTok and its success.

Transcripts

you can think of it a bit like a rat in

a skinner box push the lever

and get the food okay let's talk about

tick tock

if your experience of tick tock is like

mine then you'll know that it's

basically

like digital crack cooking you open this

app you start swiping and before you

know it three hours of your life is gone

and you've achieved basically

nothing and now with tick tock

surpassing over two

billion downloads they must be doing

something right with their user

experience

so what is it about the design of tik

tok that makes it so

darn addictive well by using the latest

in behavioral science and psychology

we're going to try and find out what tic

tocs doing to our brains

welcome back to pete's behavioral

insights and theories aka pete's bits

subscribe for free down below if you

haven't already

and let's talk about the psychology of

tick tock

so when we're trying to put together the

puzzle of tick tock's user experience

the first piece of the addictive puzzle

begins right away and that first piece

of the puzzle

is well it's that first video that

immediately starts playing

as soon as you open the app you see

unlike other video services that you use

like youtube or netflix

tick tock starts the chain reaction of

viewing straight away

without your consent now with youtube if

i want somebody to watch my video

i as a creator have to give you guys a

reason to click

on my video it's not a very complicated

task but it's what in behavioral science

we might call a decision point

it's a brief limbo in the user

experience where the user has to decide

what kind of video they're in the mood

to watch

and has to compare all the different

titles and thumbnails that are vying for

their attention

the design of tiktok is so aggressively

frictionless that they even remove this

very first decision point by tik tok

launching you straight into a video that

they're pretty sure you're going to like

you immediately become rewarded for

opening the app and this leads to a

positive reinforcement

that makes you more likely to do it more

and more in the future

you can think of it a bit like a rat in

a skinner box push the lever

and get the food open the tik tok app

and get a rewarding video

almost immediately so that leads us on

to step two and just like tinder from

last week we need to figure out

what makes tick tock rewarding and

honestly when it comes to tick tock it's

pretty obvious

videos that are funny that teach you

something new or maybe they just have

hot people in them

they're all rewarding experiences and

they're all going to be releasing that

rewarding hormone dopamine

to variable amounts now sometimes you'll

watch a video and you'll get a big

dopamine response

sometimes you'll watch a video and it's

kind of interesting that's a small

dopamine response

and sometimes you'll get a video that

the algorithm is just testing out to see

if it's any good

and if it's not then that's an

unrewarding experience but the

surprising thing is that those

unrewarding videos the ones that you

don't really care about and you just

scroll past very quickly

those are actually key to making tick

tock as addictive as it is

you see if you watch my tinder video

from last week you'll remember that

variable rewards are more rewarding

than predictable ones every time you do

that swiping motion to go to the next

video on tick tock

you're gambling as to whether the next

video is going to be rewarding or not

it might be one of those really amateur

videos that are pretty rubbish that

isn't rewarding or it could be one of

those really cool videos that kind of

blows your mind

but the fact that the reward of the next

video is unpredictable is what actually

makes tick tock

so addictive once again we have to make

that classic comparison to the slot

machines in las vegas

swiping on tick tock is equivalent to

cranking the handle on the slot machine

you don't know whether you're going to

win big

or whether you're going to lose and the

only way to find out is to keep

cranking that handle but let's talk

about that swiping motion that swipe up

that you do that is so fundamental to

how tick-tock operates

because surely that has to be part of

the puzzle of why tick-tock is so

addictive

if videos are the reward then swiping is

the lever and it's that swiping motion

that tick tock is trying to build into

you as a habit

now when it comes to the science of

habits you may have heard of submits

like it takes a certain number of hours

or a certain number of days to turn a

behavior into a habit but it turns out

that these statements are really just

popular science myths

and they aren't actually true because

how long it takes for behavior to go

from conscious effort into habit

really depends on how complex the

behavior is starting a gym habit for

example

is a very complex habit to try and build

it has a lot of different steps it has a

very

sharp learning curve at the beginning

and therefore with a habit that's this

complex it'll take many more repetitions

before the behavior becomes automatic

aka before it becomes a habit

on the contrary the habit that tick tock

is trying to build is a simple

swiping motion and it really couldn't be

easier they literally make it so easy

for you because the experience is full

screen and you can pretty much swipe

anywhere on the screen

in any direction and it triggers the

next video therefore because this

behavior that they're trying to make a

habit

is so darn simple it really only takes

very few repetitions before this swiping

motion

becomes an automatic behavior for you

and what's more is that because the

videos on tiktok are so short usually

only

10 to 15 seconds each you can get a lot

of repetitions in a very short amount of

time

and with the more repetitions that you

do the more likely you are to keep

on swiping so basically it's a simple

behavior

repeated frequently with variable

rewards it really is a perfect storm for

addictive habit formation

but finally there's one more component

to tick-tock's choice architecture

that makes it addictive and that is the

endless scroll do you remember those

decision points that we talked about at

the start of the video

tiktok literally has none of those that

for you page that is the heart of

tiktok's design

just keeps on going and going and going

and going

with way too much content for any one

person to consume

this endless scrolling with no pattern

break in the experience

no decision points anywhere in the whole

time you're using the app

is what leads to the experience of hours

and hours of your time just seemingly

evaporating as soon as you open tick

tock so i want to show you a really nice

nudge idea and i want to give full

credit to my friend dan benoni over at

growthdesign.com

who put this nudge in one of his comics

as a suggestion to tiktok

as a humane way for people to stop using

the app too much

so what dan suggested in this nudge is a

stop screen that

literally stops you from swiping anymore

with a nudge like this it really offers

a full break in the experience

it's a pause in the design that stops

people from endlessly scrolling through

tick tock and it provides a window of

opportunity where people can finally

disengage from the platform i really

like this nudge i think it's humane and

it could do a lot to improve the brand

image of tiktok if this became a feature

of the app then rather than being

compared to crack cocaine

it'd be more just like a fun roller

coaster ride that you enjoyed for a

little while

but that begs the question what do you

guys think of tick tock and what do you

think are the main reasons for its

unprecedented success

please let me know in the comments below

and if you liked today's video please

give me a thumbs up because it really

helps me out

and of course if you haven't yet

subscribed to my channel we're almost at

a thousand subscribers

so please can you subscribe down below

and ring that notification bell i really

appreciate it okay thank you guys so

much for watching and i'll see you next

time

bye