Do you remember a game called “lemmings”?
A friend of mine always says: “if you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes”
I have listened to an audiobook on my long drive to tuktoyaktuk this past august (forgot the title). It was by an Israeli economist who described series of experiments where they measured a person’s willingness to let go of options. I will try to get the jist across. If this does not make sense, let me know and I’ll look up the book and chapter.
They had in their computer “game” 3 doors, each door had a bunch of objects behind it. You click on an object and get paid. Every time you click inside one of the doors, the other doors get smaller, until they disappear. Unless you click on them at a monetary penalty.
Even though the best strategy would be to close all doors and keep clicking inside the one you are in already, people tend to keep doors open, get stressed, and make way less money. We have a really hard time letting go of options, no matter how detrimental.
Perhaps that is the problem- we found a methodology where the hamsters can be told to carry on in any direction. Just like in Lemmings.