Emotion through Social Connection

Description:

Motivator 5: Social Connection is the most intrinsic desire of all. The human brain is constantly influenced by others around it. One’s opinions, beliefs and actions are shaped by her closest social circle. We spend 90% of our waking hours thinking about other people. Sometimes we literally change our opinions in order to conform to the view of the authorial figure we respect. When we buy a product, we need social proof such as reviews in order to make an informed decision. Many of things we use are often recommended by friends and family who cares about our well-being. Social proof is a mental shortcut the brain usually takes to make the decision-making process easier. It takes a lot of willpower to resist the social pressure.

Motivator 5: Social Connection on the motivation map

Strengths:

·       It can produce both positive and negative emotions depending on the circumstances and personality of the individual.

·       Provides an element of people fun into the experience.

·       Potential for exponential growth

.    Competitive and Cooperative elements

Weaknesses:

·       Conflict becomes a problem when involving a lot of people

·       Trolling is a constant issue.

·       Persuasion resistance. Humans sometimes resist the taking of decisions that are purely influenced by others and not of their own choice.

Relationship with other Motivators: 

Similar to Motivator 8: Fear, Motivator 5 makes everything better. You can never go wrong to put Motivator 5 techniques in any project. But be careful when using competitive elements as it can undermine the power of Motivator 3: Freedom and Creativity. One-on-one competition increases creativity but if many people are competing for one reward, some will become demotivated and quit right away. 

Psychological Techniques:

·       Mentoring - Mentoring is a great mechanic that serve two important purposes. It motivates the veteran users to stay in the system longer while also helping the newcomers get used to the system. One-to-one mentoring is preferred.

·       Group quests – Video games especially MMORPG are filled with group quests. They are highly motivating because of group pressure. A group quest encourage friends to work together in order to obtain a difficult goal. It is however not a tournament where one wins and everyone loses. Every group can win as long as they do all the required actions.

·       Tournaments and rankings: They are great game techniques to activate the competitive instincts. Competition push all participants to perform more than they have ever done because only the best could win.

·       Clubs: Allow clans and clubs to form in the system and encourage them to compete against each other or work together. Loyalty becomes a big motivator when one is belong to a club.

·       Display neighbor’s activity data: Constant display of the activity data of their friends will make them to conform the average of their friends. This is an automatic subconscious response that is hard to resist.

·       Bragging: When the user achieves something substantial, put in the social features that will allow them to brag about their accomplishment to their friends.

·       Gifting: Allow valuable items in the system to be gifted to friends and family.