Motivation Map of the Brain (Gamification)
Human beings are incredibly complex creatures. Sometimes our actions are rational, sometimes they are not. We have the ability to hold multiple contradictory thoughts and motivations at once. Although we are complex, when millions of our actions are analyzed, multiple patterns emerge. We can be understood.
Before we begin, I would like you spare a minute to study the diagram above carefully. You won’t understand everything. Don’t worry, I will explain below. When you are ready, please proceed!
The diagram is called the Motivation Map of the Brain. I created it as a result of 60 years of research from affective neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, cultural neuroscience, social cognition and psychology of game design. The map attempts to compartmentalize the emergent motivations and emotions of the human brain. By looking at this one figure, the entirety of humanity’s will can be known. We can systematically design engaging experiences for each and every individual on the planet.
It has three layers of octagon.
Level 1 octagon represents our deepest and most universal motivations. All human beings on the planet exhibit these traits in varying degrees. Throughout a person’s life, some motivations become more important than others. The source of all human actions (apart from sensory stimulation) can be traced back to these 8 primary motivators: Narrative, Progress, Freedom, Security, Social Connection, Essentialism, Curiosity and Fear.
The motivations in level 2 octagon are natural extensions of level 1 but they are heavily influenced by culture and circumstance. In other words every human being has the potential to develop Level 2 motivations but not all are present in any one person. Due to differences in culture and childhood experiences, each person has a unique motivation profile. If this is understood, a tailor made experience can be designed for any particular person or groups of people. For example, I am strongly motivated by challenge, mastery and exploration. If I encounter an experience that is designed to fulfill my thirst for challenge and knowledge, I will pay for it 100% of the time.
However, level 3 octagon is quite different. It consists of extremely unhealthy emotional states which don’t appear in normal circumstances. They are unhealthy because they are detrimental to the quality of living. They only appear when a person is sick with what I call ‘motivational imbalance’. I have argued in this article that, in order to achieve a fulfilling life, one must experience a balanced dose of all 8 core motivations. Otherwise, you are in danger of developing very negative emotions. These emotions are placed according to their source level 1 motivation. For instance, extremist movements like Klu Klux Klan began because their members focused entirely on Motivator 1, Narrative. They were so blinded by the stories they told themselves about higher causes that they became gripped by extreme feelings of close-mindedness, hatred and fanaticism. In another example, a married woman in India abandoned her career and her accomplishments for the sake of security for the family. As she focused more and more on her husband and children by abandoning other motivations, her life became very stagnant and boring. She had imprisoned herself in the confines of her house. Level 3 emotions are very powerful yet very destructive. They are to be avoided at all costs.
Back to the complete map, the motivators of the left hand side are extrinsic. Anterior cingulate cortex which resides in the left hemisphere of the brain is the most probable candidate that regulates extrinsic motivations in order to respond to external influences. When these ‘economic’ motivators are present, the end goal is more important than the journey. Interestingly, the moment a threat of punishment is present around the desired object, extrinsic motivations change to a more powerful intrinsic motivation of curiosity and intrigue.
On the other hand are intrinsic motivators. When people are motivated by freedom, social connection or curiosity, they believe the process is fun in itself. Intrinsic motivations are internally generated most likely in the prefrontal cortex which is involved in personality expression, decision-making and moderating social behavior. They are usually long-lasting because the hippocampus and the amygdala also contribute to the experience. The 1st motivator: narrative and the 8th motivator: fear can be either extrinsic or intrinsic depending on the context.
Additionally the top half of the map are human motivators. They are the result of the recently evolved and the most human part of the brain, the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is not fully developed until a human reaches full adulthood. The frontal lobe is the executive center of the brain which carries out complex higher level planning, social and creative tasks. Along with the temporal lobe, they conjure stories in order to understand the world. Moreover dopamine is released from the brain and the gut whenever a person experiences pleasure from human motivators. That is why it feels good to be influenced by narrative, progress, freedom and social connection.
In contrast, the bottom half of the map are lizard motivators. I am indeed referring to the lizard brain, a fancy name given by neuroscientists to represent the limbic system that is embedded deep beneath the brain. The brainstem for example regulates the basic survival mechanisms which are both physiological and psychological. The physiological mechanisms are heart rate, breathing, digesting and sleeping. The psychological ones are fear, anger, sex, disgust and long term memory. Amygdala which is the fear center of the brain uses everything in its power to influence the organism the moment it has decided that a potential threat is near. As a result, the lizard motivators from lower level processing of the brain possess a strong force of urgency. At the same time, they leave uncomfortable feelings afterwards. Shopper’s regret is a famous example of this effect.
The motivations of the level 1 octagon will be numbered to make them easier to reference. Narrative is motivator 1 while progress is motivator 2 etc.
1. Narrative: Our instinct to tell stories is as old as language itself. This instinct is so strong that the brain is constantly constructing personal stories through imagination, even in sleep. We love hearing stories from others, watching stories, reading stories. To learn how to engage users through stories, study the films, movies, novels and video games. They have mastered how to tell captivating narratives to motivate behavior. (The followings are Level 2 motivators.)
Higher meaning: Through narratives we find meaning in our lives. We are motivated to ensure that our actions are meaningful and impactful for other people. Otherwise we feel empty.
Ideals and causes: From telling stories, we construct ideals and causes to strive for. We enjoy serving a bigger purpose and we are faithful to our ideals. All major religions in the world have utilized this motivation masterfully.
Awe: Awe is the most basic and least understood of the human emotions. We feel awe when we encounter something larger than ourselves. So large that it is unfathomable. We know it when we feel it. Our body hairs are sticking up followed by goosebumps. Throughout history, mankind has constructed incredible architecture to express their feelings of awe. We are motivated to seek it to feel that special state again. (Next are Level 3 emotional states.)
Naivety: Naivety mostly affects young people because they are easily swayed by heroic tales of moral idealism. As a result, they make the most common mistakes in life in pursuit of such ideals. Reality is incredibly complex and chaotic. One can never fully guess how a single action can lead to unintended consequences. Naivety narrow the lens in which to see the world where one action leads to one consequence. Coming of old age tend to naturally cure naivety but there are some who are still stuck in their fantasies.
Fanaticism: Higher causes if left unchecked can easily transform into dogma and then to fanaticism. Those who are affected by extremism are filled with intense emotions of awe for their object of desire such as God. As a result, they will attack at anything that challenges their object of desire at the cost of their life. This is simply not a healthy way to live because reality is populated by different perspectives of seeing the world. No one view is the only truth.
Close-mindedness: Close-mindedness is being too stubborn to admit that the narratives and beliefs one subscribes to might be wrong. This most often affects the older population because their brains have become too rigid to accept new ways of thinking. They still believe that the world hasn’t changed since their youthful times. The human society is always moving forward both in terms of philosophy and technology. At one point, someone will be left behind because keeping up with the world is a tiring task.
2. Progress: From the day we were born, we are constantly evolving as a person. Nurturing self-improvement and personal growth are the main reasons behind institutional education. This extrinsic motivation is essential for survival. We are always moving forward to the future and we hate being stuck. A feeling of stagnation in our career path for instance is the worst feeling in the world. So we are motivated to grow ourselves to the person we want to be.
Accomplishment: Competitive athletes are addicted to the thrill of accomplishment. For them winning is the ultimate drug. They would grind and practice for hours in the hope of achieving something great. The western culture emphasizes on the importance of accomplishment and success.
Mastery: More than accomplishment, we practice certain skills over and over just for the sake of mastering them. With mastery comes respect and power. When you have mastered hard skills or a difficult field of knowledge, everyone will come to you for advice. Mastery increases a person’s status in the field he/she is in.
Pride: When we look back on our past actions, we want to feel proud of what we have done. This pursuit of pride is very real for some people. This uniquely human endeavor requires constant vigilance to make sure that we don’t have any stains in our personal history. Our children and mentees can also be a source of pride. When they accomplish something great, we feel like we are floating in the sky.
Hubris: Hubris is having an inflated perception of one’s abilities in the face of a modest reality. It leads to overestimation of their accomplishments and competence. In other words, hubris is a form of self-deception which is born in order to face a harsh life.
Arrogance: Arrogance is similar to Hubris but it occurs when an accomplished person forgets that his achievements are not caused by his actions alone. Most successes are achieved by a group of highly skilled people. Those who are credited with the success should not forget their roots. Arrogance also affects children who have inherited a large amount of wealth or power because they don’t know how difficult it was to achieve such things. They lacked a sense of progress. Arrogant people often push down others in order to reinforce their own self-importance which leads to social suicide in the long term.
Narcissism: Narcissism is being obsessed with one’s own appearance. Some humans are naturally more beautiful than others purely out of genetic luck. It is an accomplishment without progress and hard work. Beauty can be used to establish power over others who are not very fortunate. By obsessively showing the world how beautiful they are, they receive reverence from others but at the same time become lonelier.
3. Freedom: Our never ending quest for freedom as witnessed from many historical revolutions reflects our most important desire, the desire to make meaningful choices in our lives. If this desire is curtailed, people fight back one way or another. Being human is to be free.
Challenge: With freedom comes self-actualization. Challenge is an essential element that helps us to push ourselves beyond what we are capable of. Tackling an interesting challenge is fun in itself. Creating a challenging task that encourages your users to grow will always engage them.
Creativity: Creativity is arguably the highest form of human intelligence. No machine in the world have ever come close to the power of the human mind to generate insight. Freedom is a definite requirement to achieve true creativity. The brain is an enormous pattern recognition machine that is constantly making novel connections. Even in mundane situations, we come up with creative solutions to tackle everyday problems like cooking and parenting. When we are creating something with complete focus, the outside world disappears. We lose track of time. We feel wonderful afterwards. This is a feeling of flow. Flow is activated when the difficulty of challenge and the skillsets align. Flow is the ultimate engagement. Those who have experienced it are ultimately addicted to it.
YOMI: YOMI is our incredible ability to outwit, deceive and predict other people. By far, the most dangerous predator of a human is another human. Therefore this ability evolved for the sake of survival of the fittest. When two tennis professionals compete for the finals, they are constantly using YOMI to get an advantage. Being cunning is also very valuable in complex social situations. We are motivated to predict other people's actions and beat them. There is no victory sweeter than that.
Selfishness: Too much freedom leads to encroachment on someone else’s freedom. Selfishness occurs when a person chooses to do something that is purely for self-interest and the consequences are potentially detrimental for other people. Selfishness can be described as an attitude but I am specifically referring to selfish actions. In reality, we all live in a human society and each of us has a bubble of freedom around us. When our choices start to affect to other people, we need to be considerate. Otherwise, selfishness will reign supreme.
Anti-social: Being creative requires one to be alone with their thoughts. Through silence, the brain can focus on making creative connections between unfamiliar things. However being too creative leaves the person with antisocial tendencies because of being in too much solitude. On the other hand, naturally anti-social individuals like those who are affected with autism tend to be very creative people because their brains are hyper-active all the time.
Perfectionist: While it is good to constantly challenge yourself to reach new heights, it is also important to realize that perfection doesn’t exist. Perfectionists challenge themselves too much to the point of exhaustion and constant disappointment. As a result, they become deeply unhappy because they cannot calm down and relax every once in awhile. The human brain does not work constantly like a machine. It requires rest and simulations to be effective in the long run.
4. Security: Security is the most extrinsic motivation of them all because it is entirely shaped by the outside environment. For example, we like our homes a lot because it is a place of refuge for our bodies to rest and be comforted. A mother will do everything in her power to make sure that she and her family are always safe and secure. We constantly push our governments to maintain public safety so that we can enjoy our life outside of our homes without constant fear. Safety and security are very important especially when we become parents.
Customization: We like to customize our rooms, our houses and our clothing. This is to distinguish our belongings from others. It gives a feeling comfort.
Bodily needs: Our bodies need food, water, fresh air, clothing and shelter to survive. So we are motivated to acquire them as much as we can until we feel secure enough to stop.
Ownership: Most people in the world will say, if given a choice, owning a house is always superior to renting it. With ownership comes safety. When we know that we own our house, we have no fear of homelessness. This knowledge helps us to sleep well at night.
Collection: We like collecting certain things because the act of collecting comforts us. Gives us temporary purpose. We like to hoard things that we value. Then we also like to show off our collection to our friends to increase one’s social status.
Money: What could be safer than having lots of money? Wealth allows us to be flexible, to enjoy our life without financial repercussions. We are attracted to making money not only to pay the bills but also to experience other pleasures of life.
Boredom: It is natural to feel boredom every now and then when the brain does not find anything exciting to do in the immediate environment. However perpetual boredom is not healthy. It is a sign that the environment is very predictable. The essence of excitement is built on unpredictability. In order to curtail perpetual boredom, one must take on an adventure that takes place outside of one’s comfort zone.
Sensitive: Another disadvantage of constantly being in a safe environment is making you sensitive to life’s normal hardships. Being sensitive is being mentally weak. It is important to venture out into new situations that will challenge your mental toughness.
Stagnant: This feeling often strikes at middle-aged people especially those who can’t get out of unfulfilling careers or relationships. For the brain to be engaged requires new challenges to solve. If what you are doing is the same thing day in and day out, eventually you feel that irritating sense of stagnation. Although you may feel secure for having a good house with a lovely family, in the inside you are unhappy because you can no longer grow as a person. A part of your identity is somehow lost. This is one of the primary motivations of cheating on their partners. To recover their lost identity.
Greed: Greed is a destructive state that is born from the desire to be secure for oneself and the family. The more money one gains, the more they like to hoard just to be sure in case something happens. This habit ultimately turns into greed because it is never enough. Being 100% safe is absolutely impossible.
Lust: Lust is the same as Greed but for bodily needs such as food and sex. After doing a sexual act or after eating a delicious meal, the body produces comforting hormones to reinforce the soothing feeling. Those who are lusty are obsessed with this fleeting feeling. Lusty individuals are addicted to their hormones. As a result, they can never get enough and keep wanting more. Those who are affected are often insecure people who constantly need to validate their existence through external means.
5. Social Connection: Our instinct to connect with others is no doubt the strongest instinct of humanity. This is most apparent when solitary confinement erodes a prisoner’s mind very quickly. The main reason why we have such a strong social instinct is because human babies are pathetically helpless. Being connected to the immediate family and the tribe is the best strategy to survive the vulnerable childhood years in a dangerous world. The social groups we subscribe to in turn shape our self-identity and self-worth. We subconsciously compare ourselves with everyone around us so that we could fit inside the safety of the community.
Schadenfreude: Humans tend to demonize others who are outside of their deeply connected social group. So when they see outsiders or competitors suffer, they take pleasure from it. This is a necessary adaptation to maintain closer tribal bonds and keeping the competitive spirits high. It feels good when your enemies fail.
Collaboration: When we reach adulthood, we realize that we can’t do everything on our own. We need the help of other people to fulfill our dreams. As a result, we are motivated to work with others in a mutually beneficial way.
Familiarity: Familiarity is our motivation to seek out people that are similar to us or similar things that we have used before. Familiarity provide a sense of safety as well as social connections.
Altruism: Sometimes human beings oddly help strangers with no expectation of anything in return. This is most revealing after a devastating natural disaster. Neighbors who have never talked now feel motivated to help each other. Many people donate to help poor communities. We do this because the feeling of helping others is satisfying in itself. Those who are very altruistic don’t see themselves as anything special. They are very sensitive to distressed facial expressions which is why they like to help.
Envy: Many of our competitive actions are motivated by envy. When we see other people succeed, we become envious and determined to become like them. This leads to competition which is the foundation of the free market economy. Healthy competitions push all competitors to become more than they can ever achieve if they weren’t competing. In other words, competition helps everyone to become more resilient.
Over-reliance: If you always rely on your social connections to provide you with emotional validation, you will end up relying on them for everything. Moreover, there is such a thing as too much collaboration in work. If the team is too big with little monitoring, over-reliance on people who work hard by the lazier ones will become common. Having more personal responsibility for one’s work and emotional needs will cure over-reliance.
Conformity: Being sensitive to social pressures will bring out conformity in a group of people. Conformity is essentially tuning one’s opinions and actions to a perceived group average. Conformity is dangerous because it destroys individuality and the herd instinct becomes more prominent. A herd is much easier to influence with toxic ideas than free thinking individuals.
Discontent: Constant comparison of oneself with those who are perceived to be better is one of the greatest sources of suffering. Capitalist societies in particular are plagued with discontent in the population because there is always someone who is smarter, richer and have better families. Comparing yourself sometimes with your role models in order to improve yourself is a good thing. Nonetheless, it is not healthy to compare their appearances with your entire life. You don’t know the sacrifices they have made to get to where they are. Maybe they are deeply unhappy in their private lives. Maybe they are jealous of your life.
Orthodox: Those who don’t connect with a diverse group of people will often express orthodox views. Orthodoxy thrives on stereotypes and simplification of complex aspects in life. Orthodox people cannot let go of familiar ideas which are no longer relevant. However being orthodox is not the same as respecting the past. One must possess the common sense to discard views that are no longer applicable in order to avoid being orthodox.
Hatred: Hatred is unleashed when a person has an unreasonable obsession with a particular person or a group of people for being wronged by them in the past. Some say it is the opposite to love but in fact it is not. Hatred is very similar to love because of the undue attention being given to the target person. It is a very powerful motivator while at the same time erodes a normal person’s mind to the point where only madness awaits.
6. Essentialism: Our mind has an inborn intuition that things have an underlying reality or true nature that one cannot directly observe or measure. It is this hidden essence that matters. It’s called essentialism. Romantic couples usually say to each other, “I want you to love me for who I am.” In other words, we want someone who truly appreciates our inner essence. This is a uniquely human desire. No other animals care about hidden essences because they simply don’t understand it. Another side of essentialism is the economic mindset. We determine the value of something based on scarcity, social proof, history and the context. All successful salesmen understand that the value of anything is always subjective and only exist in the imagination. We can tune our subjective value of the object with others to make them value it as well. For example, when we consume an object that is rich with creative effort and personal history, we feel a lot of pleasure from it.
Exclusivity: Exclusivity increases value because people who are invited are probably accomplished and powerful. The essence of an exclusive car is much higher than a stock car. We are motivated to access exclusive content because it increases our status.
Luxury: Some people like to buy luxurious things especially because they are pointless. The common intuition of luxurious products is that they are hard to make and everyone wants them. What else could explain their exorbitant price? Moreover it acts as a social cue that obtaining them will make you more valuable than others.
Scarcity: We determine a value of something based on how easily it might be lost. This is indeed a shortcut our brain likes to take because scarce resources tend to be more useful than abundant ones in prehistoric times. Utilizing this motivation will create a sense of urgency so that the customers are motivated to buy right now to avoid loss in the future.
Restless: Being obsessed with essentialism can make a person restless. By restless I mean being constantly worrying about cleanliness, romantic love, hidden value of things etc. For example, restless people often worry about their material status over others while spending a lot of money to make sure that their inner essence is pure and luxurious.
Disgust: Disgust is a normal instinct to protect the organism against ingesting disease-causing substances which are often smelly. Humans naturally avoid sick people out of disgust because diseases can easily spread. Sometimes they are unreasonably disgusted towards a group of healthy people out of perceived dirtiness. Many prejudiced views feed on this state of mind. This is when essentialism goes out of control. This disgusted feeling is in complete contrast to attractive feeling towards objects which have been in contact with extraordinary people. Like buying a personal belonging of the Emperor, Napoleon in an auction.
Wrath: When a person do not receive something they desperately crave, they feel anger. When the acceptable personal boundaries are invaded, they feel anger. When a loved one is being insulted, they feel anger. The two root causes of wrath is a scarcity of positive experiences and an excess of negative experiences. Anger is more easily activated when the human is feeling hungry or some internal pain in the body. The frustration due to scarcity of food and water causes anger in ordinary people who can quickly become violent. A scarcity of love causes deep seated anger that is difficult to be cured. Wrath usually erupts when there is a convenient person to blame for unfortunate or unsatisfactory consequences. Anger has a tendency to build up due to tolerance until everything explodes in one moment.
7. Curiosity: Children are naturally very curious. They have a strong drive to explore and understand the world. We don’t lose this motivation as we get older. It just becomes saturated by other motivations so it is not as strong anymore. Nevertheless, curiosity empowered our ancestors to conquer the world. Even now all of our scientific endeavors feed on this motivation. Not to mention, the sheer success of the travel and hotel industry reminds us that we are still very curious of the world.
Novelty: Every day we are excited by something new. A new product. A new play. A new movie. News. The media industry understand our hunger for new things. It constantly provides us with novelty.
Exploration: We like to explore our inner self because we enjoy discovering unique things about ourselves. We want to explore the world and the universe for the hope of discovering something big. The joy of exploration is the reason why mountaineers want to climb higher and more dangerous cliffs.
Unpredictability: We get a lot of pleasure from surprises. The joy of getting something we want when we least expect it is the reason why gambling industry is still going big. The excitement you get from the hope of winning an unpredictable bet is very addictive.
Overconsumption: Those who buy a lot are usually addicted to new things. Novelty is very exciting because of the hype around it. Yet at the same time, too much novelty is fueling overconsumption.
Addiction: The human brain is programmed to react quickly to unpredictable circumstances life may throw our way. If these circumstances are conquered, the brain releases a lot of rewarding hormones in order to keep the self-reinforcement strong. This evolutionary feature is easily prone to addictive behaviors in a modern life where there are systematically designed unpredictable environments to extract profits and time.
Nosiness: Being curious is healthy but being nosy is not. Nosiness leads to strains in social relationships because everyone likes to keep secrets every now and then. Being too investigative on sensitive personal matters will only lead to suspicion and annoyance from the other.
8. Fear: Fear is a feeling everyone understands. Fear is the survival mechanism to make sure we live as long as possible. It can also act as the opposite to other motivations. In other words, fear can be generated from the motivations mentioned above. For example, we are afraid of negative judgments from others, we are afraid of losing security, we are afraid to give up our freedom, we are afraid to waste our time on unimportant tasks. Fear of losing something you already have is much stronger than the possibility of gaining something new. When fear takes over the body, our awareness becomes sharp and it is very hard to ignore it. Humans are capable of immoral actions when they feel cornered due to fear because the principle of fear states that survival trumps everything.
Fight: When we fear that we are missing out on something important, we will fight as much as possible to get what we want. Fighting is essentially going towards fear, using it as an energy source. We will fight when we see the slightest possibility of winning the battle.
Flight: When the challenge is insurmountable and the danger too great, the brain will instead decide to flee from the source of fear. If there is no way to win, the best course of action is to retreat and regroup. We avoid the fear.
Paralysis: If the danger is too great even to flee or too small to bother, the human brain will subconsciously decide to stay in one place while hoping the danger to pass eventually. The human brain knows from millions of years of evolution that no threat or agitation ever stays the same forever. Eventually it will pass and a bright sunny day will come up again.
Lack of fear: This is an odd one you might think. I put this here for a reason. A minority of people are born with a disorder to the amygdala, the fear center of the brain. They are commonly known as psychopaths or sociopaths who have little fear and empathy. For psychopaths who don’t feel fear as we know it, the previous three strategies of fight, flight and paralysis do not necessarily apply to them. Instead their decision-making process is very rational when they encounter dangerous situations. They also tend to have schadenfreude, selfishness and greed more than the rest of the population. As a result they are not easily discouraged by negative consequences of their actions. Sometimes their actions lead to crime, trolling or making people miserable for the sake of pleasure. They also tend to make great leaders because they are willing to make hard decisions for the good of a system. In other words, they are motivated by the thrill of danger and a sense of control and power.
Self-hatred: Self-hatred is born from having too much fear and dislike of one’s own identity because of negative reinforcements from outside environment. Being afraid of showing oneself because of a perceived dislike from the world. This is often due to ugly physical appearances, negative demographic labels or low self-esteem.
Depression: Continuously fleeing from uncomfortable situations always brings out depression. Coupled by extreme sadness, depression cripples the individual by isolating themselves from social circles and the reality of life. As depression gets deeper and deeper, the person starts to perceive the world as a big scary place with no way out except death.
Violence: Continuously tolerating against frustrating or threatening situations always ends in violence. Violence is an intentional act in order to eliminate all manner of frustrations altogether and restore the balance. Or violence can be used to reinforce an insecure self.
Sloth: Sloth is the evil child of the paralysis behavior when an organism faces a threat that is too great or too small. In other words, sloth is a habitual state of living where a person is too lazy to face up to anything. He ends up wasting his time by doing nothing in particular. It is caused by a mind that has lost hope.
In real life, these motivations are all mixed up in the brain. No motivation is ever isolated. Some amplify each other while some cancel each other out depending on the situations. The motivation map is an attempt to understand the chaotic experiences we all feel in our heads. No model is perfect but they do help in understanding complex things such as human motivation.
There are game designs to generate every motivation mentioned above. The gaming industry possesses an enormous amount of knowledge on how to satisfy and dissatisfy the human mind. The trick is to combine these game designs effectively to get the behavior you want from the users. The process is very delicate because it requires a lot of planning, foresight and testing to get it right.
Do you now understand more about the peculiar human behaviors? How will you use the motivation map of the brain in your business and personal life?
Further Reading:
Transcend by Scott Barry Kaufman
Hooked by Nir Eyal
Whole Brain Living by Jill Bolte Taylor
My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor
The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist
The Matter With Things by Iain McGilchrist
Toward a Psychology of Being by Abraham H. Maslow
Flow: The Psychology of Happiness by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
The Rise of Superman by Steven Kotler
Personality: What Makes You The Way You Are by Daniel Nettle
The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman
Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Feldman Barret
Against Empathy by Paul Bloom
On Living and Dying Well by Cicero
The Playful Brain by Sergio Pellis and Vivien Pellis
The Power of Meaning by Emily Esfahani Smith
Behave by Robert M. Sapolsky
Affective Neuroscience by Jaak Panksepp
The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious by C. G. Jung
The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang
Selfie by Will Storr
The Origins and History of Consciousness by Erich Neumann
The Trouble With Testosterone by Robert M. Sapolsky
An Integrative Guide to Consumer Neuroscience by Sven Braeutigam
Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will by Robert M. Sapolsky
Brainwashing by Kathleen Taylor
Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu
Delphi Collected Works of Confucius by James Legge
The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli
The Art of Creative Thinking by Rod Judkins
Incognito by David Eagleman
The Runaway Species by David Eagleman
The Evolution of Desire by David M. Buss
The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins
The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray
Heroes by Stephen Fry
Mythos by Stephen Fry
Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behaviour by Mark Leary
Customs of the World by David Livermore
The Noble Art of Seducing by Kezia Noble
The Irresistable Option by Kezia Noble
In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
The Wisdom of Psychopaths by Kevin Dutton
Interdependence by Kriti Sharma
Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson
12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson
Beyond Order by Jordan B. Peterson
Maps of Meaning by Jordan B. Peterson
The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer
How Innovation Works by Matt Ridley
Sour Grapes by John Elster
The Ten Types of Human by Dexter Dias
The Literary Mind by Mark Turner
On the Origin of Stories by Brian Boyd
The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics by Arthur Schopenhauer
The World as Will and Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer
The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine
The Male Brain by Louann Brizendine
The Symposium by Plato
A History of Religious Ideas by Mircea Eliade
The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
An Enquiry Concering Human Understanding by David Hume
The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Notes From The Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Prison Break by Paul Buck
Bullies, Tyrants and Impossible People by Ronald M. Shapiro
Actionable Gamification by Yu-Kai Chou
The Sense of Wonder by Francesc0 Dimitri
The Village Effect by Susan Pinker
Designing Games by Tynan Sylvester
Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Kostet
The Happiness Fantasy by Carl Cederstrom
The Art of Communicating by Thich Nhat Hanh
How to Think Like Da Vinci by Daniel Smith
The Travels by Marco Polo
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
The Strange Order of Things by Antonio Damasio
The Joy of Pain by Richard H. Smith
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Ikigai by Hector Garcia
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell
Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Elements of Surprise by Vera Tobin
The Soul of the Marionette by John Gray
Think like a Freak by Steven D. Levitt
Isn’t This Fun? by Michael Foley
Games People Play by Eric Berne
Knowing The Score by David Papineau
Negotiation Genius by Deepak Malhotra
Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
Difficult Mothers by Terri Apter
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Get The Truth by Michael Floyd
Mind Maps for Business by Tony Buzan
Satre Explained by David Detmer
Theories of Human Nature by Joel J. Kupperman
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
Relentless by Tim S. Grover
Linchpin by Seth Godin
The Ancient Guide to Modern Life by Natalie Haynes
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
The Education of Millionaires by Michael Ellsberg
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
5 Types of People Who Can Ruin Your Life by Bill Eddy
The Arabian Nights by Robert Irwin
Awe by Dacher Keltner
A Philosophical Enquiry Into The Sublime and Beautiful by Edmund Burke
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
Being You by Anil Seth
The Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama
Homo Ludens by Johan Huizinga
The Culture Map by Erin Meyer
Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands by Terri Morrison
Cultures and Organizations by Geert Hofstede
You are the Only One I Can Tell by Deborah Tannen
The Intelligence Trap by David Robson
The Wholeness of Nature by Henri Bortoft
7 Energy Leadership by Bruce D. Schneider
The Hidden Spring by Mark Solms
Fathered by God by John Eldredge
Dangerous Damsels by Chidi C. Obigod
Pedagogy of Hope by Paulo Freire
Scattered Minds by Gabor Mate
Think Again by Adam Grant
Schadenfreude by Tiffany Watt Smith
Determined by Robert M. Sapolsky
Thinking in Pictures by Michael Blastland
Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss
Peak Mind by Amishi Jha
Mapping Motivation by James Sale
Attached by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller