The Button.
Reddit has an interesting social experiment about delayed gratification going on over at http://www.reddit.com/r/thebutton/ right now.
Basically if the account you own was created before they started this experiment on April 1, you can either choose to unlock and press a button on a web page, or you can explicitly abstain from pressing the button by loading the page once, unlocking it so that action is tracked, and then not pressing it at all by simply waiting for the experiment to be done.
The button has a lock to keep people from pressing it by mistake; This protects people from doing it by mistake, but also allows the people looking at the numbers to track who pressed it by making sure the people who do so knowing full well they did so explicitly. Pressing the button resets the buttons global countdown timer to 60 seconds; If at any time the button is not pressed within that time and the 60 second timer goes down to zero, the entire experiment ends. But if anybody in the world with an account that is old enough to be in this experiment presses the button within that 60 seconds of time, the global experiment continues for another 60 seconds.
The trick is this:
1. Nobody knows what will happen once the countdown is done counting down.
2. Nobody knows what pressing the button does in the long term, but in the short term you get "flair" on your account based on the timers status when you click it, as a short term reward.
3. Nobody knows what NOT pressing the button does.
I find the entire thing both amusing and interesting. It is a great social experiment; Can the world wide user base of Reddit stop themselves from pushing the button? How many active users will choose not to push the button? Do they have the strength of will to keep themselves from pushing the button? If they do push the button, How long can they last before they give in? Are they willing to forgo the immediate pleasure and satisfaction of pushing the button and see what happens by not pressing it? How many of Reddit's users will have the strength of will, impulse control, self control, etc to never press the button even as it sits there, taunting them with a countdown, waiting to be pressed?
I would imagine the set of people who do not push the button is going to be much smaller than the set of people who do push it. But I have also chosen not to be one of the people who pushes it. I will be a non-pusher of the button. Because I view this experiment as a test of peoples ability to forgo immediate satisfaction, and I do not want to fail that test.
Currently if a user in this experiment gives in now they get a small, permanent reward; So perhaps something better will happen later to the people who waited and did not press the button. I see the small prizes you get by pushing the button now while the experiment continues, and I can't help but wonder what you get if you do not click it at all. It must be better. So I have decided that I'm going to find out, and be one of the few who will not push the button. I will load the page, I will unlock the button. But I never click the button. I will delay gratification, and I will have the strength of will to do so even if all of Reddit seems to be taking sides and is trying to get others to be like them, pushers of the button. No I’m not joking; some of people posts asking others to push the button and keep it alive are down right religious sounding. There is even a group dedicated to keeping the button alive. They call themselves the “Knights of the Button” and you can find them here: https://www.reddit.com/r/thebutton/comments/3174r3/announcing_the_knights_of_the_button/ Now some of you may be saying “But wait Duane, what if that means you don't get anything? I mean you could push the button right now and get sweet swag/flair on your account!”. To you I would have to reply, respectfully, that I value not pushing the button in the hope of something better - even if all I get out of it is the knowledge that that I made it, and that I had the strength of will to not push it as it sat there taunting me - over that immediate gratification. Now I’m just waiting to see if I made the right choice.. We should know in a week or so if my math is right.
















