Chapter Overview

The Cambridge Analytica scandal, which broke in 2018, was the first time the term psychological weapon, a new type of technology that combines insights from … Read more

“Attention” is the focusing of perception on certain stimuli. However, since the human brain can only process information to a limited extent, the selection of … Read more

Those who are not perceived do not exist. This marketing principle applies even more in the virtual world than in the analogue one. For this … Read more

We are not a company that is designed to make money. We are a company that is designed to create communities and let those communities … Read more

It is very common, […] for humans to develop things with the best of intentions and for them to have unintended, negative consequences. JUSTIN ROSENSTEIN, … Read more

If you want to fundamentally change society – you first have to break it. And it‘s only when you break it, is, when you can … Read more

We all want to be liked. But now we want to be liked by sixteen million. Denzil Washington, US-american actor But what are the “human … Read more

Playing games activates the release of dopamine without the use of drugs. In particular, games of chance and computer games lead to intoxication-like states, also … Read more

We have to give you a little dopamine kick every now and then, so to speak, because someone has liked or commented on a photo … Read more

[…] its products set up a chain reaction that has changed social behavior in a way we still don‘t fully understand. Ian Bogost, award-winning game … Read more

How do I know if I am happy? Indicators for this are emotions. These signal “whether something is good or bad, dangerous or harmless, and … Read more

Classifications in “gamer types” according to LeBlanc and Bartle from the gaming industry can also be applied to users of social media. In addition to … Read more

In 1951, the Gestalt psychologist Solomon Asch showed in the so-called conformity experiment how peer pressure affects a person’s decision-making ability. Fifty male students took … Read more

The dynamics of the attention economy are structurally set up to undermine the human will. James Williams, former Google-strategist While motivational psychology focuses on the … Read more

Among the behaviourists, Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904 – 1990) is another important representative. In his animal experiments with pigeons and rats, he observed that the … Read more

Our reward is in merely anticipating what might await us on the other side of that click. Our past disappointments only heighten the anticipation that, … Read more

One can speak of a habit when users are a tiny bit bored and immediately open Twitter. They feel a stab of loneliness, and before … Read more

The Cigarette of This Century. Ian Bogost, award-winning game developer Initially, it is usually an external trigger, such as a flashing button, a link or … Read more

Technology has given us a rich life, but at the same time we feel uncomfortably ‘crowded’. John Maeda, artist, graphic and interaction designer The flood … Read more

Deep learning is a sub-area of machine learning and uses neural networks and large amounts of data. The learning methods are based on the functioning … Read more

There‘s no Ethics. Tristan Harris, former design ethicist and product philosopher at Google Attention engineering is ubiquitous in the online world because in an information … Read more

2020, Animation. Short film, practical part of bachelor thesis on attention engineering in social media. Tools: Blender, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Audacity The attention of … Read more