Emotion through Fear

Description:

Motivator 8: Fear is the most ancient (lizard) motivator. The presence of fear or any other strong negative emotions in a system often manifest into three consequences. They either becomes more motivated than ever to commit to the path they have chosen (fight instinct). Or they become demotivated and stop doing the activity altogether (flight instinct). Or they continue on as they have done preciously (paralysis). All of these consequences are useful in different circumstances depending on what you want. How these instincts activate depends on the amount of commitment already invested into something. The more investment a person have put into something, the stronger reaction he will display when he comes across the negative emotions.

Motivator 8: Fear on the motivation map

List of common negative emotions that are part of Motivator 8:

·       Fear

·       Disgust

·       Frustration

·       Anger

·       Grief

·       Remorse

·       Hatred

·       Regret

List of fears that can be used to motivate urgently:

·       Fear of acting inconsistent with the narrative/ideal

·       Fear of being stuck with no growth

·       Fear of making a mistake

·       Fear of insecurity

·       Fear of losing face

·       Fear of foregoing fading opportunities

·       Fear of missing out

.    Fear of failure

.    Fear of being left alone and abandoned

.    Fear of the unknown

.    Fear of chaos

.    Fear of change

.    Fear of God

.    Fear of an uncertain future

.    Fear of losing money

.    Fear of losing credibility and reputation

·       Fear of fear

Relationships with other motivators: 

Motivator 8: Fear is the most useful motivator of all because of how strong it can be. If designed carefully and sprinkled throughout the journey, Motivator 8 enhances the power of other motivators by a factor of 5 with the exception of Motivator 2: Progress and Motivator 4: Security. When one feels safe and secure, fear is often quiet. Therefore Motivator 2 and especially 4 can reverse the effects of Motivator 8. That said, little doses of fear are incredibly useful in keeping humans engaged for a particular purpose. They are also less likely to quit because of the fear. 

Moreover if Motivator 6: Essentialism, 7: Curiosity and 8: Fear are used all at once, the person will feel like there is a gun pointing at their head to take action. In other words, it is the most convincing strategy but the person will greatly resent you afterwards. The emotional backlash from this strategy must be balanced by using Motivator 1 and Motivator 5 immediately afterwards. 

Strengths:

·       Can be used to build habits quickly. If the small irritations of daily lives are stroked by the product, the user will associate the positive feeling with the agitation to form long-term habits.

·       Induce instant reaction

·       Strong sense of urgency

·       Useful at all phases of the user journey

Weaknesses:

·       If it is used too much, the user will feel like drowning and eventually will find the courage to quit forever or rebel against the system

·       Feel a strong discomfort

Psychological Techniques:

·       Entitlement: If the user feels entitled to something and you threaten to take it away, she fights to claim it as much as possible. An unfortunate side effect of a welfare state.

·       Sunk Cost Prison: Allow the user to invest time, money and energy as much as possible and threaten to take them all away if they decide to quit. That will usually make them reconsider their decision.

·       Limited time offers: Encouraging them to make a decision now to avoid losing the desired item forever motivates them strongly to take the action. If they become emotionally attached to the product, the effect is stronger.

·       Decreasing progress bar: If they don’t log in every day, their progress is slowly decreasing. If left too long, they will lose everything they have gathered.

·       A countdown timer: The closer the timer is before hitting zero, the more motivated humans become to compel.