Motivating though a Variable Schedule (or Why I Watch Bad TV)

March 15, 2016 - PRLog -- In what appears to be my continuing series on why I can't stop watching bad TV, I may have finally nailed my compulsion. At first, I diagnosed it as my inability to say no (http://www.leadersayswhat.com/2016/01/a-completionists-guide-to-not-completing). Then, realizing that a lack of willpower may not be the complete answer, I attributed my television habits to sunk cost (http://www.leadersayswhat.com/2016/02/my-sunk-cost-fallacy) where I continued to spend time so as to justify the time already spent. Now, I'm going old school with some classic behavioral psychology.

In the 1930s, legendary Psychologist B.F. Skinner introduced the concept of operant conditioning where a person's behavior changes according to consequences associated with that behavior. For those of you who don't recall your Psych 101 course, reinforcements are presented to motivate people to repeat particular behaviors. It's like watching Seinfeld-every episode has a worthwhile movement (reinforcement) that compels you want to watch more (repeated behavior).

  But what about the television shows that don't have such a frequent payoff? Skinner would attribute this to its variable schedule, where the response is rewarded after an unpredictable amount of time. Case in point, I recently had the unfortunate...

Read more at www.leadersayswhat.com/2016/03/motivating-though-a-variable-schedule