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Have you pressed the button?

17 points| signaler | 11 years ago |brookings.edu | reply

10 comments

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[+] Rainymood|11 years ago|reply
>There is something truly compelling about the button. People will engage in activities that create the illusion of control freely and willingly. This aspect of human nature could be a prank or used to take advantage of regular people. Alternatively public officials could harness this force to serve the greater good.

I pressed the button because I was too lazy to read about it first and I was curious what would happen. I was disappointed.

[+] therobot24|11 years ago|reply
same here, entered subreddit, clicked button, read sidebar
[+] keslag|11 years ago|reply
I haven't pressed the button, primarily because I don't care about it, or the result. I was given gold for some benign comment, and haven't even looked up what that means.

Though, as I was writing this, I realize I don't care about achievements in games. I'm there for the experience, where several of my friends insist on 100% completion. I wonder if there is a correlation, as the two could be seen as a waste to those who value experience and real world accomplishment over badges and accomplishment achieved through drudgery.

[+] kremlin|11 years ago|reply
is it cheating to just put some javascript into the console to check the button timer and automatically click it when you want it to click?
[+] kremlin|11 years ago|reply
(i know i'm just responding to myself over and over again but) apparently its the opinion of quite a few that the experiment doesn't have any rule that states that you can't make a script for it. that's fully in line with the parameters of the experiment, the parameters just being 'here's a button and a timer; do what thou whilst'.
[+] kremlin|11 years ago|reply
I just read somewhere that they have something that detects cheaters. how does that work?