The Superstition Machine
Can you figure out the pattern? Press the buttons to trigger the Reward Light.
Find the secret sequence to maximize your score.
🎉
REWARDS:
0
> System Ready…
The Secret Revealed
Did you think you found a pattern? Maybe “Press Red twice” or “Alternate Blue and Yellow”?
The Truth: The rewards were completely random! (Non-Contingent Reinforcement).
In psychology, when a reward follows an action purely by chance, we often create Superstitious Behavior. We assume our action caused the reward, so we repeat it, even though it had no effect.
This mimics B.F. Skinner’s famous experiment with pigeons, who would spin or peck in circles hoping for food that was coming automatically anyway.