Happy meals, Learning, and random drops
Well, I just heard about San Francisco attempting to ban happy meals. If there is any wonder why, we'll have to look at a concept that should be quite familiar to the onling world. The random drop.
While training animals (of which people are a part), there must be a goal to be obtained. There must also be an incentive to reach that goal. Usually, it's a clicker, followed immediately by food. The animals associate the noise of the clicker with receiving food. This is called a conditioned stimulus.
The whole point of conditioning the stimulus is for the animal to continue doing what you have trained them to do, even without the reward. In essence, McDonald's is setting up a conditioned stimulus within children. They are rewarded with a toy when they eat McDonald's, thus associating toys with eating McDonald's food.
Ever notice how, when there is a group of toys that come with the happy meal, the one you wanted is the one you would least likely to receive? This should be a familiar concept to video gamers, and MMORPGs in specific. Random drops are less random with McDonald's, as evidenced with their Monopoly distribution. If you give little rewards, the customer will more likely come back for bigger rewards.
How many monsters would you slay if you thought you had the chance of getting a great reward? For some, as many as it takes. If the odds were weighted (which they are), you would have to wait quite a long time (though not too long, or else the conditioned stimulus effect would go away). How many large fries would you buy if you thought you had a chance of winning a large screen TV? How many happy meals would you buy if you really wanted that one toy? All while associating the food you're eating with nice rewards.
While I disagree with banning the happy meal, I do see McDonald's as training young children to become loyal customers. Heck, it even works on Adults, too. And that's a tad scary.
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