Psychology of Averaging down13 Oct 2021 21:58
B.F. Skinner is one of the most famous behavioral scientists in history.
Skinner did experiments with rats using boxes that dispensed cheese as a reward when the rats pulled a lever.
Obviously, the rats who got cheese every time they pulled the lever were more motivated to pull the lever than the rats who didn’t get cheese.
But there was a third box. This one dispensed cheese as a reward randomly. Sometimes, the rat got cheese, and other times, it didn’t.
You’d think that the rats who were certain of getting cheese would be the most motivated to pull that lever. But you would be wrong.
The rats who didn’t know whether or not they’d get cheese were the ones most motivated to pull the lever on the box.
It’d be easy to say that people aren’t rats. But if you look at the research, this experiment relates to how the brain reacts to uncertainty.
Now Deemule, Selfish, cloves and others can be more understood, as they all choose the third box as they're all really gamblers!