Emotion through Security

Description:

Motivator 4: Security is the most extrinsic desire. We are motivated to seek safety and security because we don’t want to be constantly influenced by fear and unpredictability. The more control a person possesses over something, the more secure he feels. That satisfaction you get when you feel that you are ‘set for life’ is very addicting. Humans tamed nature in order to create an environment where security is mostly guaranteed. Dying from being eaten by predators is almost non-existent these days. Most adults in the modern society are willing to work for long hours in bad jobs for decades to hopefully reach financial security in old age. In other words, motivation of security can be very strong in the right context.

Motivator 4: Security on the motivation map

Strengths:

·       An extrinsic motivation

·       Provide emotional comfort and well-being. That peaceful feeling devoid of worry and fear

·       Nullifies most of negative emotions

Weaknesses:

·       If grows out of control (due to desperation), it can override intrinsic motivations like creativity and curiosity.

·       If used too much, it can transform into a black hat motivator that is greed

·       Greed leads to irrational hoarding of precious resources and mindless consumption of products

Relationship with other motivators:

.    Motivator 7: Curiosity is the opposite of Motivator 4: Security. Curiosity = 1/Security. The more security and predictability is influenced the less power that curiosity and unpredictability has and vice versa. It is a paradox to have both complete security and complete unpredictability.

.    Motivator 8: Fear is nullified when Motivator 4 is being used up to a point. For example, the more money one has the less fear he has for the future. When Motivator 4 goes overboard and transform into greed, fear is amplified as well. 

.    The power of Motivator 6: Essentialism and scarcity is enhanced when used together with Motivator 4. Acquiring scarce and exclusive resources increases the feeling of safety. 

.    Motivator 4: Security must be used after Motivator 2: Progress in order to increase its power. If the security techniques are used before the progress, then humans will not be motivated to grow themselves. But if they are used after growth and accomplishment as a reward for their hard work, then they will motivated to grow themselves to gain more security. 

Psychological Techniques:

·       Allow peer-to-peer selling in the system – Selling precious in-game items to those who want it a great way to increase the longevity of the system. If people can make money, they will flock to the system.

·       Collection sets: Encourage them to collect something that is perceived to be valuable. Humans like collecting similar things they personally find valuable. So utilize that innate characteristic.

·       Creatively display activity data through a representation: Humans like seeing their progress data in graphs and numbers because they give him a sense of comfort that he isn’t entirely wasting his time. But displaying it in a more creative way will increase their attraction to their sense of progress.

·       Personalized service: Make a system uniquely adapted to each user’s wants and needs. Moreover the user interface should be constantly evolving from simple displays with a few core features in the onboarding stage to a more complex UI containing many features later on when the user is more comfortable.

·       Fulfill their physical needs: Come up with ways to satisfy their bodily needs and entertain their senses.