They dominate the doctor's office waiting room, the bus ride home, any spare few minutes in our lives that we want to fill with something low-effort and mindless. What are they? Mobile games like Candy Crush Saga and other mindless match-three timesucks. Listen now to learn about how these games are engineered to hack into your brain to make them easy to get into, satisfying to play, and impossible to put down. 

If you have any comments, questions, concerns, queries, or complaints, please email me at [email protected] or DM me at @NeuroscienceAmateurHour on Instagram. Citations and relevant papers below: 

Dockterman, E., Candy Crush Saga: The Science Behind our Addiction, TIME, November 13, 2013

Fruhlinger, J., Candy Crush Addiction is Real - and Can Lead to Destructive Results, Observer, (2019). 

Soroush, M., Hancock, M., Bohns, VK., Self-Control in Casual Games: The Relationship between Candy Crush Saga (™) players in-app purchases and self-control. IEEE Games Media Entertainment, Conference Paper (2014). 

Larche, C., Musielak, N., Dixon, M., The Candy Crush Sweet Tooth: How “Near-misses’ in Candy Crush Increases Frustration, and the Urge to Continue Gameplay, Journal of Gambling Studies (2016). 

Madigan, J., Why You Don’t Burn out on Candy Crush Saga, Psychology of Video Games (2013). 

Perez-Truglia, R., On the causes and consequences of hedonic adaptation, Journal of Economic Psychology, Volume 33, Issue 6 (2012). 

Camgoz, N., Yener, C., Guvenc, D., Effects of hue, saturation, and brightness: Part 2: Attention. Color Research and Application, Volume 29, Issue 1 (2003). 

Madore, J., Wagner, A., Multicosts of Multitasking, Cerebrum, (2019).

Duverge, G., Insert More Coins: The Psychology Behind Microtransactions, Touro University Worldwide (2016).

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