Coke Machine or Slot Machine?

The psychology behind a Coke machine is exactly the reverse of a slot machine. Why should this matter to you? It might not if all you want is to quench your thirst or to gamble. But believe it or not, it matters profoundly if you have to discipline or reward someone (I’m thinking especially of you, parents).

What’s the Difference?

The key difference is how each creates and maintains a desired behavior. One is better for discipline and the other for reward.

Coke Machine

Yes, I know Coke machines have gone the way of rotary dial telephones. But humor me. In my youth, if you wanted a soda, you looked for the red Coke machine, dropped in a dime, and pulled out a bottle of soda. Simple. Consistent. Repeatable. Predictable. BUT, what happened if, after dropping in your dime, the machine kept your money but didn’t produce your soda? Did you put in more money to see if it worked the next time? I sure didn’t. Isn’t the universal response to hit the machine a few times, say a few choice words, and then move on?

The psychology behind a Coke machine is based on its one-to-one, action-to-result ratio. Put in a dime, get a soda. Put in another dime, get another soda. As long as you get what you expect, you’ll do it again and again. But put in a dime, lose your money, and don’t get a soda? The one-to-one ratio is broken, and the action is immediately extinguished.

I’ll explain how this relates to reward and discipline after analyzing a slot machine.

Slot Machine

Did you ever know anyone addicted to a Coke machine (to using it, not to soda, itself)? Me, neither. But a slot machine by its very nature encourages addiction. How exactly? You drop in your money, pull the handle, and … nothing. Do you hit the machine and move on? Maybe, if it’s your last dollar. Otherwise, because you know that your actions may or may not produce your desired results, the very possibility of a big payoff is enough to hook you into dropping in more money.

The psychology behind a slot machine is based on its one-to-many, intermittent, unpredictable, action-to-variable-results ratio. Drop in your money, pull the handle, and nothing. And nothing. And nothing. And something! And nothing. But you don’t stop. You’re hooked by hope. With a one-to-many-outcome ratio, actions persist. And given enough time and repetition, the dopamine hits produced by intermittent payoffs will literally rewire your brain to seek out more and more rewards.

Discipline and Reward

Maybe you’ve already figured out how, as I said above, one machine is better for discipline and the other for reward. The deciding factor is whether you want to extinguish or encourage certain behaviors.

Coke Machine

For discipline, you want to extinguish unwanted behavior. The secret is to be a Coke machine. Create a one-to-one ratio between action and result. Let’s say you tell your young son to clean his room. First of all, only ask once. If you ask more than that, you will train him to wait until you hit your “last straw” before reluctantly obeying (I was young once, too). Also, using his middle name is a tell that you’ve “had it up to here”. Tell him that whenever you ask him to do something, you will only ask once, and then there will be consequences. But here’s the rub. This only works if you’re a Coke machine. If he disobeys you (drops in a coin) and you discipline him (roll out a soda) every time, he is far less likely (nothing’s perfect) to disobey if he knows there’s a one-to-one ratio between his unwanted behavior and consequences. My dad was a disciplinary slot machine. I knew that after giving me his favorite “you’re grounded” consequence, about half the time he’d forget what he said in a couple of hours. Payoff! Without meaning to, he was actually encouraging me to disobey.

So let me guess what you’re thinking. You’re too busy, tired, distracted, and sometimes exasperated to be consistent. I get it. I’ve been there. The good news is, extinguishing a particular behavior isn’t a lifetime effort. Once you establish the understanding that you are a disciplinary Coke machine, not only will the behavior you’re targeting begin to diminish, but other unwanted behaviors should as well as the one-to-one approach generalizes. On the other hand, inconsistent consequences will generalize to increase even more unwanted behavior. And you don’t want that, do you?

Slot Machine

For reward, you want to encourage wanted behavior. Now it’s time to be a slot machine. Create a one-to-many-outcome ratio between action and result. As soon as you begin Coke machining your son to clean up his room, reward any forward progress, no matter how small. Do this consistently until he begins cleaning up his room either immediately when asked or without being asked at all. Then blend in your slot machine intermittent rewards. Never, never, never reward him every time after he begins to make significant progress, or you’ll extinguish his behavior as soon as the reward stops. Find a few big or small rewards that are meaningful to him—an extra half hour of video games or TV, a trip to get an ice cream cone, a free pass on another chore that he hates doing. You will offer to do it yourself, this time and this time only. And you’ll score massive cred if he knows you hate that chore, too. Meanwhile, sprinkle in some simple, low-key thank you’s or well done’s. The goal is to reduce the rewards’ size and frequency until his behavior becomes a self-motivated habit.

The end game

Yes, all this can happen if you understand the dynamics and stick it out. Like the old commercial, you either pay now, or you pay later. Put in the relatively less effort now to change the behavior of whomever you’re responsible for, and you will avoid having to try to stop a train wreck of bad behavioral habits later on. Mind you, your mileage may vary. Some people will resist your best efforts in a game of chicken to see who breaks first. And others will fall in line with merely a disapproving or approving glance. You can’t help that. Learn to be a Coke machine or slot machine when appropriate, as best you can. In the end, all you can do is all you can do. And a good night’s sleep every now and then works wonders, too.