Hook Model: This is How Habit-Forming Products are Created!

According to author Nir Eyal in Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products: “Seventy-nine percent of smartphone owners check their device within fifteen minutes of waking up every morning. Perhaps more startling, fully one-third of Americans say they would rather give up sex than lose their cell phones.” ¹

Wait, what?!?!?!

If that doesn’t open your eyes, how about this – a 2011 study showed that we check our cell phone 34 times per day, but many experts believe that number is closer to 150 times per day!

If those statistics make you wonder what it is that causes us to pick up our cell phone and compulsively check our social media, texting app, or email at the dinner table, stop light or upon waking up in the morning, then you have come to the right place.

Today, we are going to discuss Eyal’s hook model which describes the psychology behind how different companies attach their products to our internal triggers which make us use their products without any external prompting.

Before we get to the hook model, let’s first discuss two things that are key to the hook model: habits and dopamine.

Let’s Start with Habits

Recall that habits are defined as behaviors that we engage in automatically which are triggered by situational cues.  Habits allow us to focus on other things by storing automatic responses in an area of our brains which is associated with involuntary action called the basal ganglia.

The idea for companies is to create habit-forming products so that our brains don’t even think about using their product, meaning that we use their products unprompted – i.e. checking our cell phones like mindless drones!

What’s interesting is that many of the people who design these products and experiences are as well versed in psychology as they are in technology. They have created products that entice and trap us and in so doing alter the neurochemistry of our brains – which brings us to…

Dopamine

Dopamine is one of the major neurotransmitters we possess, and its job is to carry urgent messages between nerves and other cells in the human body.

Known as the “feel-good” hormone, it plays a vital role in many of our bodies systems and functions such as movement, sleeping, memory, attention, mood, and learning.

So, whenever someone likes, comments, or shares our posts or images on social media, we get a little hit of dopamine.

As Eyal says:

“Research shows that levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine surge when the brain is expecting a reward. Introducing variability multiplies the effect, creating a focused state which suppress the areas of the brain associated with judgement and reason while activating the parts associated with warning and desire.” ¹

Now that we have discussed habits and dopamine, let’s see how they are leveraged in the hook model by companies attempting to create those habit-forming products that have us all hooked.

The Hook Model

From a business perspective, the less companies spend on marketing and advertising, the more profit they make, it’s common sense.  So, instead, it is more efficient for companies to link their products and services to our daily routines and emotions.

Rather than spending money on costly marketing and advertising, they guide us through a 4-step experience of ‘hooks’ that makes us form habits which get us ‘hooked’ on their product.

Let’s now explore the 4 phases of the hook model:

(1)  Trigger

The first phase of the hook model begins with a trigger, which is something that gets us to take action in the first place. There are two types of triggers: internal and external triggers.

Habit-forming products typically begin by alerting us with some type of external trigger that causes us to take action. For example, a link we are sent to join a Facebook group, an advertisement we see for Netflix, something we hear about via word of mouth from a friend, the Instagram icon on our cell phone screen, etc.

Eventually, however, those products or services become coupled with a feeling, a thought or a preexisting routine that we have. When this happens, it is leveraging what is called an internal trigger, which is the holy grail of consumer technology as we act without thinking. This means that a habit has been created.  The idea is to over time associate their product as a way to alleviate our pain or scratch our itch. This way when we feel that pain or need to scratch that itch, we reach for their product without thinking.

For example, if we feel bored, we may reach for Instagram, Netflix or ESPN, if we feel lonely, we might reach for Facebook, if we feel uncertain, we may reach for Google.

(2)  Action

The next phase of the hook model is an action or behavior that we take in anticipation of receiving some type of reward. Companies utilize two aspects of human behavior to get us to take action: making it easy for us to take the action they want us to take (simplifying it) and leveraging psychological motivation.

(a)  Simplify It

They make it easy as possible for us to do something by using one or more of the following 6 elements:

  Time: by reducing the time it takes to do something.
  Money: by reducing the fiscal cost of taking an action.
  Physical: by making it physically easier to do something.
  Brain cycles: by making it less cognitively demanding.
  Social deviance: by making it socially acceptable.
  Non-routine: by making sure it fits with existing routines.

(b) Psychological motivation

They also give us the psychological motivation to do so by using one or more of the following motivators:

  To seek pleasure and avoid pain, except if you are into sadomasochism.
  To seek hope and avoid fear.
  To seek social acceptance and avoid rejection.

Motivation can be tricky and costly. So, while many companies leverage it, it is easier for them to figure out how to make things easier for us to do so we will be more likely to do them.

For example, you are watching a series on Netflix, what happens at the end of the episode? After 30 seconds or so, the next episode automatically plays, they make it physically easy for you to take action to watch the next episode. Actually, it takes more effort to stop the next episode from playing than to just let it play. 😊

(3)  Variable Reward

The third step is where we are rewarded by having our problem solved which reinforces our motivation for the action that we took in the second phase of the hook model.

This is where dopamine comes in!

The key is to give us rewards on a variable basis because without variability we know what is coming next and we get bored.

It is all based on experiments done by psychologist B.F. Skinner back in the 1950s which were conducted to understand how variability impacts animal behavior.

Skinner put pigeons in a box and each time they hit a lever they received a food pellet. Then, instead of releasing a food pellet every time they hit the lever, he released the food pellets after a variable number of taps. What he found was that the intermittent reward substantially increased the number of times the pigeons hit the lever.

The same goes for how companies manipulate us using variable rewards. Recent research has shown that variable rewards intensify activity in the nucleus accumbens parts of the brain and increase levels of dopamine which drives our insatiable hunger for rewards.

What’s REALLY interesting is that it isn’t the reward itself that releases dopamine, it is the anticipation of the reward.

Eyal describes three types of variable rewards and I give some examples you may be familiar with:

(i)  Rewards of the tribe:

As Eyal says: “our brains are adapted to seek rewards that make us feel accepted, attractive, important, and included.”  For example, every time we post on social media we anticipate a reward in the form of a comment, like or share from one of our friends it keeps us coming back and wanting more!

(ii)  Rewards of the hunt:

These types of rewards satisfy our “need to acquire physical objects, such as food and other supplies that aid our survival, is part of our brain’s operating system.” ¹ This is what causes us to keep scrolling through our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook feeds or whatever website we are on to find something interesting.

(iii)  Rewards of the self

These types of rewards are fueled by intrinsic motivation and are based on self-determination theory where we desire a sense of competency. For example, conquering video games, reducing the number of unread messages in our email inbox, learning how to master a certain piece of software. They all give us a sense of completion or mastery.

As B.F. Skinner showed in the 1950s, variable rewards are a critical inducement to repeat actions which are necessary for creating habits.

(4) Investment

The last phase in the hook model is where the user does a little bit of work which increases the chances that they will make another pass through the hook model.  It is called the investment phase because the user puts or invests something into the product such as data, effort, money, time, etc. which helps create the mental associations which activate our automatic behaviors.

It is based on a concept called ‘escalation of commitment’ or the IKEA effect. Meaning the more effort that we put into something, the more we will value it.

For example, uploading songs into iTunes, inputting your preferences into Netflix, uploading photos to Instagram, adding friends on Facebook, filling out your LinkedIn profile, wanting to have a good reputation on eBay, Yelp, or Airbnb, or investing time learning how to use a certain piece of software.

So, the next time a service asks you to make some type of investment, you will know why!

So, that’s the hook model in a nutshell.

Hopefully, you are now better aware of the psychology and framework that companies use to connect their solutions to our problems and manipulate us – most times without us even knowing!

On That Note…

I need a couple of favors if you don’t mind…

Could you scroll down and see if you can find the share button? When you find it, I’d appreciate if you shared it on your favorite social media platform.

And while you are down there, feel free to leave a comment on this post, and also sign up for our weekly newsletter as well if you haven’t already!

Thanks in advance for that little dopamine hit, I needed it!

Until next time, be wary of the hook model, and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick

P.S. Wanna know more? Check out the entire book.

Use it or Lose It

The 4 steps of the hook model that we discussed today are as follows:

(1)  Trigger:  something that gets us to take action in the first place.
(2)  Action:  an action or behavior that we take in anticipation of receiving some type of reward.
(3)  Variable Reward:  where we are rewarded by having our problem solved which reinforces our motivation for the action that we took in the second phase.
(4)  Investment:  where the user does a little bit of work which increases the chances that they will make another pass through the hook model.

When to Use It

It is always good to be aware of how companies may be manipulating us to do things.

What Do You Think?

After reading today’s post, can you identify some of the ways the hook model manipulates your behavior? Can you think of any other areas of your life where similar Skinner-based models have affected your behavior? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

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References

¹ Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal

https://www.1843magazine.com/features/the-scientists-who-make-apps-addictive

Learning from Las Vegas: Gambling, Technology, Capitalism, and Addiction – https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/62889724.pdf