<p>There's this <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/thebutton" rel="nofollow noreferrer">amazing social experiment going on Reddit - the Button</a> as of April 1 2015. Here's an example of a website that tracks statistics of the experiment: <a href="http://button.mtsanderson.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://button.mtsanderson.com/</a></p>

<p>Reddit users can press the button once and get a badge to indicate time at which they pressed it. As the timer counts down, the competition gets stiffer - someone is bound to press the button before you. There's speculation that once the timer runs out the game is over.</p>

<p>This seems like a great social experiment. Have there been similar experiments in the past? <strong>What drives people to press the button at the time they do?</strong> </p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Z6FF4.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-04-16T22:38:33.277Z
It's definitely an interesting topic. I imagine that there are loads of different reasons that people might push the button (and the numerous comment threads certainly speak to this). I think you could make the question more answerable if you narrowed the scope a bit.
Josh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-04-17T20:36:30.280Z
I'm interested in how people pick the time to press the button. Somehow this button game seems to me to be similar to the "prisoner's dilemma" game played on the global scale.
Alex Stone
<cognitive-psychology><decision-making><game-theory>
What drives users to play Reddit's "The Button" game?
Alex Stone
# What drives users to play Reddit's "The Button" game?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-04-16)

There's this [amazing social experiment going on Reddit - the Button](http://www.reddit.com/r/thebutton) as of April 1 2015. Here's an example of a website that tracks statistics of the experiment: <http://button.mtsanderson.com/>

Reddit users can press the button once and get a badge to indicate time at which they pressed it. As the timer counts down, the competition gets stiffer - someone is bound to press the button before you. There's speculation that once the timer runs out the game is over.

This seems like a great social experiment. Have there been similar experiments in the past? **What drives people to press the button at the time they do?**

![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/Z6FF4.png)

**Tags:** cognitive-psychology, decision-making, game-theory

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: It's definitely an interesting topic. I imagine that there are loads of different reasons that people might push the button (and the numerous comment threads certainly speak to this). I think you could make the question more answerable if you narrowed the scope a bit.  
> **username_0**: I'm interested in how people pick the time to press the button. Somehow this button game seems to me to be similar to the "prisoner's dilemma" game played on the global scale.  

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## 0 answers

