Loyalty Cards, Gamerscore, and Vanity

Over on ihobo today, an exploration of the relationship between cognitive bias, vanity, loyalty cards and Microsoft’s G. Here’s an extract:

The loyalty cards work on a system identical to B.F. Skinner's fixed interval schedule of reinforcement… the schedules pay out roughly 1 in 6, with the best offering a free coffee every 5 and the worst (Costa) effectively offering just a 1 in 20 (5%) return. But all these loyalty schemes are superior in dividends to Microsoft's Gamerscore scheme (or G), which until last year offered no tangible rewards at all. And yet, G is far more effective than the coffee shop loyalty cards at promoting loyalty, and it is interesting to see why that might be.

Interested? You can read the entire Loyalty Cards, Gamerscore, and Vanity over on ihobo.com.