I know I’ve said this before (broken record, I know!), I’m an introvert. I’ve wondered for some time how this personality trait affects my motivation in gamified apps. I talked a little about my own experience with Duolingo in particular in my latest podcast, but I’d like to expand a little on what I talked about there. In case you missed it, you can check out my podcast below.

I guess the first thing to do is look a little bit at the traits of introverts and extroverts to better understand the differences. I have put together a little infographic to more easily illustrate the common traits of each personality type.

From the information in the infographic, we can summarise by saying that introverts are more solitary, while extroverts are far more social. A study carried out by the American Trends Panel in 2014 found that from a sample of 3,243 participants, 12% described themselves as very extroverted, while only 5% described themselves as very introverted, and 77% feeling that they fell somewhere in between the two (Houston 2019). A mini survey that I carried out on Twitter somewhat reflects those findings (remembering that this was a rather small sample size).

Hi Guys! I've updated my poll as I realised that I didn't take into account those that aren't strong introverts or strong extroverts, but that many people tend to fall somewhere in the middle. If you could answer again, that would be brilliant! Thank you!! #ALM201

— Emma Neilsen (@emmamneilsen) April 25, 2020

So, why is that information important? Denden (2017) states that “most gamified systems follow the “one size fits all” approach when integrating the game elements, without considering the learners’ differences”, while Jia (2016) states that “researchers have found that different individuals are impacted by gamification differently, suggesting the effects of personality differences in responding to gamification”. In order to motivate users to continue using gamified apps, it is important to look at how different personalities gain motivation. Because introverts are more introspective, they are more likely to be self- motivated to reach their goals. In the case of gamified apps, introverts are more likely to intrinsically motivated, that is performing an activity for its own sake is reward enough in itself (Cherry 2020). Extroverts are more extrinsically motivated; they gain motivation from the rewards received from the activity rather than any enjoyment gained from simply performing an activity (Cherry 2020).

Now that we understand the differences in motivations for introverts and extroverts, what does the research say about how each personality draws motivation from gamified apps? Codish (2014) states that “extroverts are more likely to be achievement oriented and seek hedonic values and have learning styles that promote group activities, talking out loud, and learning through interactions”. They also go on to state that introverts are more likely to reflect first and take action later, are more solitary workers, prefer to present their work in a way that allows them to maintain their privacy, and “prefer asynchronous communication, and in online setting would typically have higher levels of usage” (Codish 2014).

Smiderle (2020) elaborates on that by stating that extrovert users are more driven by points, levels, and ranking, which caters to extroverts’ need to be social, and sharing their acheivements with their social circle. Smiderle (2020) also found:

“Introverted participants…had a higher number of points, medals, and logins than extroverted [and]…[a]statistically significant difference was found in the number of points and ranking visualization between the introvert and extrovert gamified groups, thus indicating a divergence on how users with different personality traits receive the gamification effect”.

Smiderle (2020)

This goes back to the fact that introverts are more intrinsically motivated, while extroverts look for the extrinsic rewards gained from undertaking the activity.

 Ghaban and Hendley (2019) state that extroverts preferred the leaderboards, while introverts preferred more tangible rewards. They add that “highly extroverted learners are more likely to enjoy competing with other friends on the leader board by collecting points and badges”(Ghaban and Hendley 2019). In addition, they found that highly extroverted users were more motivated by the gamified elements. 

With all this in mind, we can see that gamified features such as rankings, points, badges, and socialisation are more motivating to extroverts than introverts, who are more intrinsically motivated and gain more enjoyment from seeing themselves progress.

But, wait! I hear you say, how can gamified apps possibly hope to cater to all personality types?! To be blunt, they just have to. It is problematic to try to create separate apps for different personality types. The best, and I believe only way, is to use methods that will engage a wide range of users while still keeping the different motivating factors in mind.

Jia (2016) provides some key pieces of advice to sustain engagement of both introverted and extroverted users. They suggest that “To invoke more sustained engagement from extraverted users, [a] Leaderboard may be a better choice” rather than simply utilising Points, Levels, Badges, and Rewards (Jia 2016). As for introverts Jia (2016) suggested that the leaderboard function (which can be a demotivating feature for introverts) be either omitted or implemented in such a way that introverted users may only compete with close friends.

I’ve made a video where I review some language learning apps and discuss which apps have elements that work for me as an introvert, and which ones don’t. If you’re interested, you can see it below.

I can really only see things from an introverts perspective (no matter how much research I do), if you’re an extrovert and you see yourself in some of this information, I would love to hear from you!

Until next time, have fun getting digital!

Emma

Featured Image:

Personality by EpicTop10.com (CC BY 2.0)

References:

Cherry, K 2020, Differences of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation, Verywellmind.com, retrieved 27 April 2020, <https://www.verywellmind.com/differences-between-extrinsic-and-intrinsic-motivation-2795384>.

Codish, D and Ravid, G 2014,Personality Based Gamification – Educational Gamification for Extroverts and Introverts, paper presented to the 9th Chais Conference for the Study of Innovation and Learning Technologies: Learning in the Technological Era, The Open University of Israel, February 2014, pp.36-44, retrived 3 April 2020, <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260305044_Personality_Based_Gamification-Educational_Gamification_for_Extroverts_and_Introverts>.

Denden, M, Tlili, A, Essalmi, F and Jemni, M 2017, Educational Gamification Based on Personality, paper presented to 2017 IEEE/ACS 14th International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications (AICCSA), October 2017, pp. 1399-1405, retrived 27 April 2020, doi: 10.1109/AICCSA.2017.87.

Ghaban, W and Hendley, R 2019, ‘How Different Personalities Benefit From Gamification’, Interacting with Computers, vol. 31, no. 2, pp.138-153, doi:10.1093/iwc/iwz009.

Houston, E 2019, Introvert Vs Extrovert: A Look At The Spectrum And Psychology, PositivePsychology.com, retrieved 27 April 2020, <https://positivepsychology.com/introversion-extroversion-spectrum/>.

Jia, Y, Xu B, Yamini, K and Voida, S 2016, Personality-targeted Gamification: A Survey Study on Personality Traits and Motivational Affordances, paper presented to 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, May 2016, pp. 2001-2013, retrieved 15 April 2020, <https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858515>.

Smiderle, R, Rigo, S, Marques, L, Peçanha de Miranda Coelho, J and Jaques, P 2020, ‘The impact of gamification on students’ learning, engagement and behavior based on their personality traits’, Smart Learning Environments, vol: 7, no. 3, <https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-019-0098-x>.

Video Credits:

Apps by Stock Catalog (CC BY 2.0)

Digital Dreams (Azureflux Remix) by Starbox (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Duolingo by Michael Allen Smith (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Duolingo logo.svg by Zóram Úho Hákān (CC0 1.0)

Frustrated by Ashlee Martin (CC BY 2.0)

Hand Print by kimdongsu (Pixabay License)

Korean Language Test by Yongho Kim (CC BY-SA 2.0)

“Making mistakes helps you learn” #Duolingo by Dunk (CC BY 2.0)

One hundred day streak @Duolingo by Dunk (CC BY 2.0)

Sad face by ijustwanttobeperceivedthewayiam (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Smartphone apps by Image Genie (CC BY-SA 2.0)

20% on Duolingo by Michael Allen Smith (CC BY-SA 2.0)

3d3stars.svg by Amada44 (CC0 1.0)

벙글챔피언즈2015 앱공모전당선작Eggbun Education 동영상광고진행케이스 by Vungle (CC BY 3.0)

Intro made using MotionDen

Animation made using RenderForest