All competition can magnify feelings. The challenge of trying to beat a leaderboard, beat a game at stake, or even surpass the score you had last time can be pretty intense. You’re having a good time, and then you wonder: “How did this all come about? Sound familiar? That’s because the same mental mechanisms that shape digital interactions are at play in competitive play.
These emotional changes are particularly interesting to those who study gambling psychology. The dynamics of being excited, disappointed, feeling good about something, and staying motivated go much deeper than any one thing. They are related to the basic characteristics of human decision-making, reward processing, and motivation.
The Emotional Nature of Competition
When you compete, you’re never sure, and when you’re never sure, the brain is into the nitty-gritty of getting excited. Success is not just about winning; it’s about affirming preparation, skill, and effort. Losing, on the other hand, can be a very painful experience. This is known as the loss aversion effect in behavioral economics, which holds that negative experiences have a stronger emotional impact on us than similar positive experiences.
What’s interesting is that our emotions are not solely a result of the outcome. This is for the same reason that expectations are important. Sometimes a close loss can be very satisfying after a great game, and sometimes a victory can be very disappointing after a great game. The brain compares results to its predictions, not to the actual results.
Such emotional fluctuations are a major reason competitive play remains an interesting experience across sports, esports, strategy games, and many digital experiences, such as playing with Royal XO Denmark.
How the Brain Responds to Winning and Losing
There is a complex system of neurological activities that lie behind every emotion – both good and bad.
The chemical discussed most is dopamine. Dopamine is perhaps most often referred to as the “pleasure molecule,” but this is not quite an accurate term, as dopamine has much more to do with anticipation than with pleasure. It helps stimulate exploration, learning, and repetition of behaviors by reinforcing those that lead to possible rewards.
This forms a dopamine loop, as it were. Every possible question that could arise keeps the brain busy and entertained, as it may lead to a better outcome on the next try.
Of course, the body is also readied for action by adrenaline. HR increases, attention becomes more focused, and reactions are faster. Competition is not only a mental, but also a physical experience.
Not all answers are agreeable, though. Losing can lead to a rise in cortisol and thus stress and frustration. Many players will get fatigued from decision-making after a long competitive session – it becomes harder and harder to stay focused and make fewer and fewer mistakes.
The emotional roller coaster is, then, not just psychological; it’s quite biological.
Why Near Success Can Be So Motivating
There’s something really interesting about competitive psychology and how strong an impression can be made when you’re just about to get it done, but not quite.
Picture coming up to the end of the race, holding a second or two to a perfect score and counting on these experiences to drive up enthusiasm, rather than stifling many participants.
Reward prediction error is the explanation neuroscientists offer for this effect. The brain is attuned to reality when it is slightly different than what is expected. Near successes mean that progress is possible; this helps to motivate further efforts.
This can also be used to implement reinforcement learning. Every time, it gives new information that is used to make new decisions and behavioral patterns.
Not all the time, of course, does the brain operate in a purely logical manner. Numerous types of thinking errors can lead players to believe they have better odds of succeeding next time or that they are improving their skills when they are not. To make sense of these biases, people can benefit from understanding them so they can be more enjoyable in competitive settings and have more realistic expectations.
Motivation Goes Beyond Winning
Trophies and rankings are the most prominent part of the discussion, but there’s more to engagement in the long run. There are two types of motivation, namely, intrinsic and extrinsic. External rewards like points, badges, rankings, and prizes can be very important motivators, but in isolation, they do not keep students engaged.
Many competitors stick with these games because they enjoy learning challenging new skills, progressing through a series of problems, or tracking their progress over time.
Different Reward Structures, Different Emotional Experiences
Competitive environments are also conducive to resilience. Is each failure a learning opportunity and not a failure?
Successful online systems design challenge and reward, very well balanced, keeping people engaged but not bored.
- Social comparison is fostered with the use of leaderboards.
- Achievement systems recognize and reward steps towards achievement.
- Break your goal down into daily objectives; it will create daily opportunities for success.
- Rewards for persistence will be unlocked by unlockable content.
All of these combined make for very strong positive feedback that compels users to come back – without the need for regular wins.
Variable rewards have an interesting place in particular. If some outcomes are still uncertain, anticipation is high, as there are always new things to come. However, because of this uncertainty, people want to know more and will continue to engage with digital content.
These behavioral traits are seen in many digital products and extend beyond games to encompass fitness, learning, productivity, and interactive entertainment.
Competitive Mechanics Across Digital Platforms
Reward frequencies for each digital experience aren’t necessarily the same.
For instance, when talking about low RTP slots, the focus is on how the mathematical return rates affect the long term. Although RTP is statistical and does not guarantee specific payouts, different payout designs can influence your feelings while playing.
Giving out smaller rewards more often can make them feel like they are making progress regularly, and giving them out less often can produce higher peaks of emotion and anticipation of the rewards.
This difference is an example of another important aspect of behavioral economics: that people often react more to perceived patterns than to their actual probabilities.
Expectations and uncertainties can shape the emotional experience as much as actual outcomes do.
