Psychology impacts nearly everything. In the workplace, thereare at least five psychological principles that inform gamification. These conceptsmay help explain why some companies believe that the strategy for employeeengagement works.
Five psychological principles fueling gamification
1. Gamification satisfies fundamental human desires
Bunchball, which hascreated gamified platforms for more than 300 companies since 2007, notes that gamificationtaps into basic human desires. Some examples include people’s need forrecognition, reward, status, and achievement; their innate love of competition andcollaboration; and the human desire for self-expression and altruism.
2. It bolsters a sense of community
Game play can help create a nurturing workplace communitywhere employees support one another and help each other grow. The leaderboard, atraditional hallmark of gamification, permits individuals and teams to compareaccomplishments and engage in friendly competition for badges, trophies, andstatus. In a white paper, Bunchball notes that companies should make it easy for users to earnawards in the beginning. From a psychological point of view, this encouragesbuy-in and ignites engagement. However, leveling up should become moredifficult as users progress through the material.
3. Gamification forges an emotional connection
Everyone loves a good story. In gamification, narrativesdeveloped around a learning activity make the activity more engaging and relevantto the learner. According to Growth Engineering, a UK-based vendor, this is because people tend to rememberstories, as opposed to unconnected facts. Senior instructional designer VickiKunkel agrees, adding that online learning must include emotions. “Emotions arethe engagement ignition switch in online courses; without them, there can be nomotivation, no interest, and no learning transfer,” she writes in an article on TrainingIndustry.com.
4. Gamification relieves cognitive overload
Research indicates that the brain can only handle a finiteamount of information at one time before becoming overloaded. Gamification hasbeen shown to relieve stress and clear the brain of distractions. Betterlearning happens when this occurs.
Carol Leaman, CEO of Axonify,expands upon this point. “If you play AngryBirds or some other game on your mobile or laptop, you are not thinkingabout what you are making tonight for dinner. You are thinking about what isgoing on in the game,” she says. “When you incorporate learning in thatexperience, it causes a hyper focus on the key learning point.”
5. Individuals will keep playing
Studies suggest that on a psychological level, losses can betwice as powerful as gains. This corresponds to the loss aversion theory,which maintains that individuals would rather avoid losses than acquireequivalent gains. Following this model, an individual would prefer to not lose $5, as opposed to finding $5.
The loss aversion theory plays an important rolein gamification. Users who earn or receive awards as a result of gamification donot want to lose them and, thus, will continue playing in order to retain them.
