full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Wendy De La Rosa: 3 sneaky tactics that websites use to make you spend

Unscramble the Blue Letters


In one classic experiment, lab rats were more captivated by the rnaodm chance of pushing a lever and riivecneg a food pellet than by the certainty of a fixed food schedule. And we as hmanus are just the same.

We're enticed by the chncae to win. Just like at a slot machine in Vegas, you increase your dopamine levels every time you try your luck. So my tip here is to avoid tmtaoeitpn altogether by unsubscribing from online shopping emails. You can't buy what you can't see, and these emails are constant rieendrms that are idtneend to lure us back to the site with its gamifications and its gimmick, when you'd otherwise not be thinking about them.

Open Cloze


In one classic experiment, lab rats were more captivated by the ______ chance of pushing a lever and _________ a food pellet than by the certainty of a fixed food schedule. And we as ______ are just the same.

We're enticed by the ______ to win. Just like at a slot machine in Vegas, you increase your dopamine levels every time you try your luck. So my tip here is to avoid __________ altogether by unsubscribing from online shopping emails. You can't buy what you can't see, and these emails are constant _________ that are ________ to lure us back to the site with its gamifications and its gimmick, when you'd otherwise not be thinking about them.

Solution


  1. temptation
  2. intended
  3. humans
  4. reminders
  5. chance
  6. random
  7. receiving

Original Text


In one classic experiment, lab rats were more captivated by the random chance of pushing a lever and receiving a food pellet than by the certainty of a fixed food schedule. And we as humans are just the same.

We're enticed by the chance to win. Just like at a slot machine in Vegas, you increase your dopamine levels every time you try your luck. So my tip here is to avoid temptation altogether by unsubscribing from online shopping emails. You can't buy what you can't see, and these emails are constant reminders that are intended to lure us back to the site with its gamifications and its gimmick, when you'd otherwise not be thinking about them.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
installment plans 3
online retail 2
regain control 2


Important Words


  1. altogether
  2. avoid
  3. buy
  4. captivated
  5. certainty
  6. chance
  7. classic
  8. constant
  9. dopamine
  10. emails
  11. enticed
  12. experiment
  13. fixed
  14. food
  15. gamifications
  16. gimmick
  17. humans
  18. increase
  19. intended
  20. lab
  21. levels
  22. lever
  23. luck
  24. lure
  25. machine
  26. online
  27. pellet
  28. pushing
  29. random
  30. rats
  31. receiving
  32. reminders
  33. schedule
  34. shopping
  35. site
  36. slot
  37. temptation
  38. thinking
  39. time
  40. tip
  41. unsubscribing
  42. vegas
  43. win