In the last decade, the business and technology worlds have become obsessed with the science of the mind. The thinking goes as follows: if we understand the mind, in all its intricacy, we can manipulate and control it to produce the business objectives we want. While this may seem like a new movement, made possible by recent advances in psychology, “big data”, and neuroscience, it is in fact the rebirth of a line of psychological fascination that dates back at least 70 years.

In the aftermath of World War II, psychology became obsessed with behavior and mind control. The question was: How could terrible people like Mussolini and Hitler manipulate so many people? This led to research on hypnosis, brainwashing, and, in general, the dark side of humanity. When the Cold War began, this research fully blossomed, resulting in now famous experiments like the Milgram Authority Experiment and the Stanford Prison Experiment. While some of this research was intriguing to marketers, it wasn’t really applicable to concrete business problems.

However, now, in the early 2000s, the rise of Behavioral Economics has ushered in a new phase of business minded behavior science, and psychology books with tangible applications are popular once again. One of the latest books in this line of inquiry is Nir Eyal’s “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products”. In the book, he outlines what he calls “The Hook Model”. It’s a simple four-phase model that explains the basic process of habit formation:

Step 1: Trigger Behavior

Step 2: Perform Action

Step 3: Variable Reward for Action

Step 4: Commitment to Product

Over 200 pages, Nir clearly explains and elaborates upon each of these elements and how they elegantly fit together to form a (hopefully) never-ending cycle. The more frequently a company is able to bring users through this loop, the more likely it is that they’ll successfully induce a habit in their users or customers.

Students of psychology might recognize the basic three-step process of Operant Conditioning, also called the “Habit Loop” in Charles Duhigg’s “The Power of Habit”, as the core of the Hook Model. To this core, Nir has added a fourth element: Commitment. The process works as follows: First, a user is prompted to use your product or service by a trigger of some sort. The user then performs the behavior. The easier and simpler the behavior is, the better. Next, the user receives a reward from engaging with the product. Preferably this is a reward they weren’t expecting – a “variable reward”. Finally, the user invests in the product by adding info, effort, time, etc. This not only causes them to value the product more, but it also helps them tailor the product to their needs and preferences – which makes future uses faster and more rewarding. That, in a nutshell, is the Habit Loop.

Nir makes sure to delve into each segment of the loop to provide further clarification and plenty of examples. In the trigger section, Nir outlines five different types of triggers – four types of “external triggers” and one type of “internal trigger”. In the reward section he talks about the three primary types of variable rewards, which he calls rewards of “The Tribe” (social), “The Hunt” (food, clothing, shelter, etc.), and “The Self” (intrinsic). Each of these sections is peppered with great examples of technology products that exemplify the concept being covered. When speaking about variable rewards in technology products, he appropriately turns the reader’s attention to slot machines, the Twitter feed, and the Pinterest feed. When speaking about products that won because of ease-of-use and simplicity in the “Action” (step 2) section, he compares Google’s minimalist homepage to Yahoo’s cluttered portal. Visual examples like these make the sometimes abstract concepts in the book crystal clear.

For someone just beginning his or her foray into applied psychology, this book is a fine start. This, however, does not mean that it doesn’t have its issues. Many of the biggest product successes in the technology world directly contradict the Hook Model. For example, Google initially exploded in usage and prominence without any commitment (step 4) required. It’s only in recent years that Google has pushed users to sign into their Gmail or Google+ accounts while searching (to improve personalization). This is at odds with one of the core messages of the book: “Before users create the mental associations that activate their automatic behaviors, they must first invest in the product.” In addition, Uber, one of the most habit-forming apps that has ever been created, doesn’t use variable rewards. While there is some degree of variability in the Uber experience (sometimes there’s surge pricing and sometimes there isn’t), that’s not the reason the app has become a daily staple for so many. It’s heavily used because it’s immensely useful and solves a key problem/pain point. Paypal, Google Maps, and Dropbox are other examples of apps that violate the principle of “Variable Reward”. All of these products are quite practical and utilitarian, which perhaps hints at an addendum to the principle: “Utilities do not need reward variability. In fact, stability and a lack of surprises might be preferred.” Who wants to be surprised upon opening Paypal?

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