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I can’t tell you how many cumulative days of my late 20s I spent sitting on the toilet long after my business was done, swiping right until the tendons in my palm started to spasm as if to say, “I’m ashamed to be a part of this body.” Relax, hand, I’m doing this so I don’t have to overwork you in a whole different way amiright fellow masturbators?
Point being, Tinder is very addictive. And, according to Tinder executive Jonathan Badeen, that is completely by design.
According to Daily Mail, Badeen has admitted basing the dating app’s famous ‘swipe’ mechanic on a 1940’s psychological experiment that transformed pigeons into ‘gambling fanatics’.
Back in 1948, Harvard behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner proved that pigeons were superstitious by placing eight hungry pigeons into cages and dispensing food pellets to them every 15 seconds, regardless of their behavior. Skinner found that six of eight pigeons developed consistent rituals, one banging its head in the corner of the cage while another spun around, all believing that their consistent rituals were earning them more food. Dr Skinner concluded that “reinforcement is contingent with a response” even when no causality exists.
In the HBO documentary Swiped: Hooking Up in the Digital Age, Badeen basically said we’re all pigeons.
‘Skinner essentially turned pigeons into gamblers.
When he pecks and gets food – he gets bored, so he peck-peck-pecks, he doesn’t know when he’s gonna get the food. He might get it, he might not.
That’s the whole swiping mechanism.
You swipe, you might get a match, you might not.
And then you’re just like excited to play the game.’
Quick question though, Mr. Badeen: do the pigeons spend all their disposable income buying another pigeon it has no chemistry with dinner and never talking to them again? If that’s the case, consider me a pigeon. Watch your food at the beach bitches.
[h/t Daily Mail]