- Timothy Hudson
- Seattle, WA
- United States
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Is there potentially an economic impact to using happiness as an incentive?
A website, thefuntheory.com has been creating different concepts to add enjoyability to regular tasks in an effort to motivate people to perform them. You can view their website to see some of the really cool concepts they are testing. A few of them include, musical stairs next to an escalator, a speed camera lottery, and a trash bin that plays a sound representing a falling object when you throw something away.
Is it possible that large cities could use this tactic on a grander scale to have a dramatic over all affect on their costs? Could we have publicly funded 'amusement,' with an investment twist? What are some other ideas that could be employed on a metropolitan scale to reduce costs such as waste cleanup, emergency services, traffic congestion, or resource abuse?
Donna White
I know that Bhutan wants to become the first country to produce only organic food, and to remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits. I wonder if they have fun incentives to do this.
Thomas Brucia
My point again, is that defining 'fun' is almost impossible. I like shining the copper bottoms of the Revere Ware pots and pans. My wife says I'm wasting my time, and I'm the first to admit the 'cooking functionality' is not changed one single whit whether the bottoms shine brightly or not. I keep on shining them anyway (CopperGlo if you're curious) simply because I enjoy doing that.
Oh, and we won't get into my fun time reading history (mostly 19th century European and Asian). This fun is positively ANTI-productive. (My wife frequently comes in and reminds me that I still haven't swept out the garage and brought in the mail....).
What is fun is posting to TED! I doubt we're doing much productive here, but it's nice to share my musings with others.....
Matthew Ceder
Peter Han 500+
Here is an example. Last week, my wife re-framed one chore in our home, namely the cleaning of our glass counter top. This accumulates grease and food stains quickly and reveals them vividly because it is glass.
Cleaning this glass top has become a fun artistic activity thanks to my wife. I saw her using an artist's paint brush making fun and whimsical designs with soapy water on this counter top. So as she doodled using the soapy foamy solution, she was also cleaning the glass counter-top. She deliberately re-framed what used to be a tedious chore into something more fun and artistic. The soaping film actually reflect light in effervescent patterns that are also evanescent (the bubbles disappear within minutes). So it could be also be a form of performance art.
How about you? What ideas do you have for re-framing drudgery into more fun activities in your home?
Jami Edelheit 500+
Timothy Hudson
I wonder, what is the cumulative affect of a million more smiles? If a city were to undertake a curious mission- to cheer itself up, what might come of that? Many cities already have monuments to famous historic members, beautiful pieces of artwork, and pleasant landscapes. But what if the goal was less subtle in nature, and not centralized on the walk along the river bank, or the main thoroughfare? Could a city of a 100,000 people smile a million more times a month and what could that change?
This was my original thought which was developed into the conversation I began above. I am in great agreement with you that a smile or a laugh changes your mood and perspective. We humans like to mimic each other also, which makes those smiles contagious.
Thank you Jami
Jami Edelheit 500+
We need to start in the schools! A quote I made up many years ago was, "Smile..People will wonder what you've been up to" combine that with "Carpe Diem" Seize the day and the journey begins:)
Peter Han 500+
Brittney's comment "It seems a little like subtle behavioral control, even if it is for good. The other notion is while it seems to dilute the ill will we feel towards a particular action, it also dilutes the joy we would get for doing it without incentive." interests me.
Yes, it is behavioral control but so are traffic lines, traffic lights, etc. If we live in a society, we need to abide by certain codes and rules in order to live harmoniously. Even the best of us could use reminders to do that we know we ought to do. So I don't have a problem with behavioral control and I don't worry about diluting the sense of good will because one can derive good feelings from doing the right thing, being part of something bigger, being generous AND at the same time derive a laugh from doing so or appreciate some beauty in their world as a result from doing so.
For example, imagine if EVERY single recycling bin produced either a funny sound/visual effect or a beautiful sound/visual effect (that changed every now and then to keep them fresh). That would simply add more beauty and humor to my daily life. Is that a problem? Imagine living in primitive times when life was pure drudgery to do even the most mundane chores such as fetching water, cooking food and cleaning clothes. Was there an upside to those chores being tedious, ugly and exhausting?
If every time I recycled a plastic bottle, the recycling bin produced a beautiful excerpt from one of my favorite opera's or displayed a captivating piece of art, that would reinforce my recycling habit AND bring good things to my day.
One favorite example of fun theory is PlayPump where kids pump water for their village water tower while playing on a merry go round. See: http://www.waterforpeople.org/extras/playpumps/how-playpumps-works.html
Is this ethical behavior control? Does it dilute the sense of good will? Does it go good for the village?
Timothy Hudson
The goal of this concept is to use positive stimulation, to motivate voluntary human interaction, participation, or abidance, in an effort to reduce costs for a public service.
The PlayPump fits this model quite nicely. The interaction of the children powers the pump which fetches the much needed water. The labor cost is reduced to zero, and the children are pleased.
Thank you again for this excellent example Peter.
Peter Han 500+
Here's another: Swirl which turns washing clothes into a game. See at: http://studioblog.designaffairs.com/?p=264
These designs make so much sense.
Best regards,
Peter
Vincent Kwek
Love the concept - it's similar to to the "nudges" written about in Nudge, by Thaler and Sunstein.
As an aside, fun could exacerbate negative externalities instead of reduce them (as in the examples cited in thefuntheory.com). SummonAunties - an iPhone app developed in Singapore (http://summonauntie.com.sg) actually makes it fun for folks to alert fellow community users to nearby parking inspectors (who impose parking fines on car owners who park illegally).
Two can play at this game! :)
Timothy Hudson
Could you give an example of the 'nudges,' for those of us who are not familiar with what they are? I am very interested.
Thank you
Vincent Kwek
Certainly!
The concept of 'nudging' stems from the observation that human beings are not infallible, and make decisions that are not in their best own interest. Basically, people choose poorly, often blundering in decisions involving education, personal finance, healthcare, etc. For example, you would expect that the number of people choosing to opt-out or opt-in to organ donations would be exact mirrors of each other - but setting the right mechanism does matter: one thinks differently when choosing to opt-out of a default option, rather than consciously choosing to opt-in a particular one.
Thaler and Sunstein's recommendation is not to impose or mandate hard regulation, but one more in line with "libertarian paternalism". Think about setting the right "choice architecture" to "nudge" people to decide (recognizing their infallabilities), instead of denying them a choice and mandating a particular option ("paternalism") or giving them all the choices ("libertarianism").
Fun, in this light, could be seen as one of these "nudges". My earlier example of SummonAunties was meant to demonstrate that "nudges" could easily be used for good or bad, depending on the perspective you hold. Making high calorie fast food more exciting and fun, just as making illegal car parking fun, could just as easily make society worse off than before!
Brittney Stewart
It seems a little like subtle behavioral control, even if it is for good. The other notion is while it seems to dilute the ill will we feel towards a particular action, it also dilutes the joy we would get for doing it without incentive.
It's the reason we derive so much joy out of volunteering, because we are doing it of our own volition, because we want to help others not have some sort of compensation or reward.
Varlan Allan 10+
For every action we do and every interaction there is an exchange. Volunteering has it motivations as well.
This is why we volunteer for different oganisations and reasons. It is about fulfilling things about ourselves and the good feeling we get at the end of the day. Not saying this is bad, but just the same the volunteers are rewarded, just not in the way we normally think.
Timothy Hudson
However, I must point out that the goal of this idea is cost reduction. Currently, we use speeding tickets as a control measure for speeding- behavioral control through negative reinforcement. Of course no one wants anyone to be injured, but from a financial perspective car accidents cost a city money, much more than is gained from the cost of the ticket. If we can find a mechanism that reduces the number of car accidents per year by reducing speeding such as the musical roads in Japan, Denmark, or Lancaster California, we find a sound investment.
Many of the the costs we could potentially reduce with these types of behavior control, are already mitigated by levying fines. Literring for example. If we can reduce the number of these fines while also adding joy to a mundane task and simultaneously reduce costs for a city, its a triple win!
Ed Schulte 50+
and your Joy received t rally proof that unselfish giving action/volition cannot help but returning greater then given because 1) the "other" is you and 2) there were no impediments to prevent the flow 3) it is the perfect answer to timothy's "goal" of "cost reduction"...ie unselfish giving brings (the opposite of cost) abundance.
Ed Schulte 50+
Happy-ness is always short lived and requires another "short" of higher energy each time. "Happy" is the drug wester media and advertizing pushes.
Why search/seek for happy-ness when Joy is always available? ...requires no obtaining anything before it? and doesn't take fro anyone else.
Pontus Westermark
At first, I think that some of the videos were literally reward-type scenarios. The belt-video as an example. Are they using the belts because belts are cool and funny or are they using them only because that's the only way to access the video-system? In that scenario, you might as well give them some money to use a belt, in my opinion. In the speed-lootery video, you either lose money by getting a ticket or you automatically participate in the lottery, while encouraging people to drive safe, I can't help to feel like it's limited to the road where the system is in place and not to roads in general (somewhat like speed-cameras where people put their locations into their gps and slow down appropriately to not recieve a ticket). I'm not that found of these type of systems.
For the bottle-video, i somehow felt that it was a scenario where people were going to recycle their bottles anyway and therefore choosed the funny one. Similarly to either watching paint dry or a tv-show, you are have to do one but not both.
But for the stairs and the trashcan, I'd be amused and prefer them over the escalator or throwing trash on the ground. But if all stairs and trashcans were like that, I'd probably be neutral or annoyed by them. It'd have to be "those weird stairs I'm going to pass". I also think that it's easily ignored if done to much, similarly to how people living in vegas appear to have a completely different view of the city then tourists.
Don't get my wrong thought, I'm all for noisy stairs, weird trashcans, liana-based crosswalks, trampolines instead of stairs at some places, the list of fun stuff I would do instead of mundane, every-day walking could be endless. I just have to doubt that they really fullfill a long-term change in behaviour where they are not present.
Timothy Hudson
The challenge that we face with an idea like this you have done well to display here. I believe that challenge is adjustment. After the novelty of an amusement wears off, we return to a state of equilibrium and then continue life as normal.
However, I think that with enough creative thinking, we can find solutions around that. Money for example is generally enjoyed by all, most of the time. This is a motivator we can depend on. Also, could novelty be defeated by employing ideas like the trash bins in places frequented by children or tourists?
I feel that any great breakthroughs in this type of reasoning would probably require quite a bit of analysis and ingenuity, but it could be possible.
Louise Asselin
Here is an example of an advertisement by Contrex who produce bottled water. I love the concept that in order to get to see what happens, they need to keep peddling. Like the trash can, it's not only interactive but that anticiptory factor makes it that much more enticing (and it can be anything, aimed at any group of people - not just a giant LED male stripper haha). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEH4Yum4nN4&feature=player_embedded
Timothy Hudson
Additionally, the bicycles generate power from their human interaction, I wonder if we could find a way to use that system to power something, or charge batteries?
Bryan Zaldivar
Timothy Hudson
Steven Dilloway
Timothy Hudson