Freaky streaks

A new study in the  Journal of Consumer Research study demonstrates just how well gamification – specifically, the tracking of streaks – can spur repeat behavior.

If you are into Wordle or various fitness apps, you are aware of how it feels when you keep a streak going, or when you accidentally break it. This research suggests, among other things:

• People are more likely to continue a behavior when a streak is highlighted compared to when it is not.

• If your streak is broken, you are less likely to continue with the app in subsequent days.

• If the app highlights your broken streak, you are less likely to continue than if it does not.

• It’s less demotivating (but still demotivating) if your streak is broken because of an app malfunction rather than your own forgetfulness or inattention.

• People feel a greater sense of overall accomplishment when they have an intact streak compared with people whose activity is not logged.

There are several layers of implications. One is, don’t highlight people’s broken streaks, as many apps do. Also, give consumers an opportunity to repair their streaks, which can alleviate the demotivating experience of breaking the streak.  Or do what Duolingo does and allow people do purchase a “streak freeze” so they can keep their streak intact artificially even though, in reality, they didn’t interact with the app every day.  Or you could expand the definition of a streak to make it easier  – making it weekly instead of daily, for instance.

The authors talk about using streaks to motivate employee engagement, as well.  If you are struggling uphill to accomplish some major long-term task, like writing a research paper, establish a streak so that you will encourage yourself to work on it at least a little every day.  (There is an app called Streaks that helps you establish streaks for whatever you want.)