Foursquare and Pavlov’s Dog

March 18, 2010 by Ben Yoskovitz 21 Comments

I’m a big fan of Foursquare. It’s not because of the game or even the possibility of getting deals at nearby locations when I check-in. What’s fascinating about Foursquare, and in my opinion, at the heart of its success to-date, is the fact that it has created a new, automatic user behavior.

Remember Pavlov’s dog?

Ivan Pavlov developed the concept of the “conditional reflex” after studying how dogs would salivate in response to a stimuli (other than food). Turns out according to the Wikipedia article he might not have even used a bell, although that’s what we all remember in popular culture. But anyway…

Conditional reflexes. Conditional responses. The basic idea is a reflex, response, or action that is automatic, without thinking, based on some repeated stimuli. It’s pretty powerful stuff. We’re talking mind control here. Imagine if you could condition people to respond the way you wanted, say, when they saw you in a blue shirt, they automatically gave you a $20 bill. Or, every time you clapped your hands your partner (wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, roommate, etc.) would stop what they’re doing and get you a beer. Sweet.

And the beauty and huge potential with Foursquare is the fact that they’ve done exactly that; creating a conditional reflex in people to “check-in” when they go to a location. I bet if you asked people who use Foursquare what’s the first thought they have when they go into any location (other than their home), it’s, “I have to check-in.” Even if you don’t check-in (because you don’t want people to know, for example) you still think about it.

That’s a completely new behavior. And it’s practically automatic. You go somewhere, you check-in. That’s just what you do.

Creating new behaviors in people is very hard. Most of the time, if the success of your product depends on creating a new behavior you’re screwed. It’s just that hard to do. Yet Foursquare — and other mobile apps like Gowalla — have managed to pull it off.

If the “check-in” behavior sets into our brains to the point where it becomes a true conditional reflex, it will be amazing. The company that dominates that new behavior will have a significant amount of power on their hands.

I’d argue that any new mobile application will need to create a conditional reflex behavior in people to be successful, both in terms of attracting new users, but more importantly with respect to repeat usage. You want to create a situation where every time someone sees X (or X happens) they do Y (with your mobile app). Without that level of simplicity and conditioning (whether via a new behavior or not), you’re going to get lost in a sea of other mobile applications and things people can do with their time.

image thankfully provided by shutterstock

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Adam

I love it. As a business person I can definitely see the potential in really understanding what you are saying. As a person who teaches young people who are already conditioned by radio, tv and social webpages I am actually frightened by how easy it is to get people to disable common sense for auto-reactions.
Graficas

Nice and very informative thanks for sharing with us
Eugene

I guess it's like in the military where they train people (eg. marines) for offense and defense that these skills come out naturally when they are put in a situation where it's a matter of life and death. If a business can have such an effect on their consumers, it's really going to be amazing…like a switch among us that they only need to turn on.
sonysanjaya

you have nice post, the dog i remember that and i agree what you say like : If the “check-in” behavior sets into our brains to the point where it becomes a true conditional reflex, it will be amazing. The company that dominates that new behavior will have a significant amount of power on their hands.
sarah

i'm agrreee with ivan pavlov concept
Benjamin Yoskovitz

Adam – thanks for the comment. I don't know if it's THAT easy, since most companies don't succeed as well as Foursquare and Gowalla have, but you are right that when it works, it works.

What's your experience with younger people and privacy? Mine is that they don't care as much as older generations, and that's just going to get “worse” (or “better” depending on how you look at it) with generations to come…
travian

I’ll look for it at Target the next time I’m out that way.
Adam

To be very true I dont like the foursquare, they are very hard to manage due to their big size I dont like them as they are a bit heavy and uncontrollable and slow!
matthewneedham

I'm not familiar with foursquare, but I do know that location based advertising has huge potential. I'll definitely have a look at this. Thanks for sharing.
isibringer

Thanks for sharing! I don´t like the tought of a switch in us that only needs to get turned on..
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Free Email Finder

It’s pretty powerful stuff. I am talking mind control here. Imagine if you could condition people to respond the way you wanted,
Free Email Finder

It’s pretty powerful stuff. I am talking mind control here. Imagine if you could condition people to respond the way you wanted.
Fat Burning Furnace

These abilities appear out by itself if they are put in a bearings area it's a amount of activity and death. If a business can accept such an aftereffect on their consumers.
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Greg Hluska

I have to tell you, that is a very interesting look at Foursquare. But, I'm wondering – don't you think that all branding is a form of classical conditioning? Being 'educated' and supposedly intelligent, I like to think that I am immune to the conditioning effects of branding. But when I watch myself work through a grocery store, and when I analyze all the heuristics that I use, I realize that I too have been taken in……

I wonder what advances in neuro-marketing will do to change the way that companies condition us?
vlad

I’d argue that any new mobile application will need to create a conditional reflex behavior in people to be successful, both in terms of attracting new users, but more importantly with respect to repeat usage.
Xurxo Vidal

Hey Ben,

Not sure if this is sinister, brilliant or both. Marketers have always figured out how to use psychology to get people to take action. And with the recent onslew of iphone toting zombies, creating conditional reflexes shouldn't be too hard to do for the most part.

Already I've noticed major behavioral changes in many iphone/smartphone users where they tweet every chance they have or constantly get updates from a variety of apps on their device – even in socially inappropriate times – such as in the middle of a conversation. So I'd argue that stretching this development to changing behaviors is more easily done as these devices have somewhat of a hypnotic effect.

I think that some app developers have figured out a formula that works – create a game environment that inserts a competitive element to the app. Foursquare is a great example as users seem to be more interested in becoming the “mayor” of a place than getting deals.

Pavlov would have had a field day experimenting with smartphone apps!
Benjamin Yoskovitz

Xurxo – I'd say it's sinister and brilliant, mixed together. Aren't the best things usually like that? 🙂
lauftreff

What an incredible page is this? Don´t know how I came here but I like it.

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