Tech companies have become expert in exploiting positive intermittent reinforcement—the same mechanism used by slot machines in casinos to keep people playing—where users scroll and get occasional hits of interesting content on an unpredictable schedule, keeping them glued to scrolling.

causalpending

Speaker

Richard Cytowic

Evidence Quote

This is the same mechanism that's used by slot machines in casinos to keep us playing. That is, we scroll and we get a hit or something interesting or a good piece of news, and that's a reward. And so we said, oh, let's get another one. And we keep going. And so, but the rewards come infrequently and on an unpredictable schedule. And that's what keeps us glued to the, to the to the scrolling.

Source

Your brain wasn't built to hold this much information | Richard CytowicBig Think
Created: 8/12/2026, 6:39:44 PM

My Notes

Loading notes...