Ever wondered why hearing your phone notification alone gives you a rush of excitement and/or terror? Or why certain people can't stomach certain foods? Or why Snoop Dogg is in every commercial ever, for no discernible reason?

Welcome to Psychology I.R.L! Today's episode - Classical Conditioning, and how it can be used in advertising to convince us to buy products we don't need, and often don't even really want.

Apologies to any Russian listeners I may have at this point in time or any point in the future. Also, yes, I know that 'desireties' isn't a word but language is arbitrary so I can say whatever I want and you can't stop me.

This show is written, performed and produced by me. Music by Matt Ponio.

References:

12:01 - Garcia & Koelling, 1966

26:34 - Solarz, 1960

26:37 - Chen & Bargh, 1999

27:28 - Gorn, 1982

28:32 - Alpert, 2005

28:37 - Pornpitikpan, 2012

28:40 - Vermeulen, 2015

29:51 - Grossman & Til, 1989

33:51 - Riley & Anderson, 2015

34:01 - Till et al., 2008

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever caught yourself doomscrolling your life away? Refreshing the YouTube homepage over and over? Habitually checking your phone like a lovesick peasant awaiting a letter from o'er yonder?

Welcome to the first episode of Psychology I.R.L! Today, we're taking a look at the concept of operant conditioning - what it is, how it works, and crucially, how it's being used to keep us glued to our screens, swiping our lives away.

References/Further Reading:

5:26 - Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms: an experimental analysis.

32:49 - Lindström, B., Bellander, M., Schultner, D. T., Chang, A., Tobler, P. N., & Amodio, D. M. (2021). A computational reward learning account of social media engagement. Nature Communications, 12, Article 1802. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19607-x

33:07 - Crone, E. A., & Konijn, E. A. (2018). Media use and brain development during adolescence. Nature Communications, 9, Article 588. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03126-x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.