Trivia Done Right – Dishing Out the Dopamine
In many of the focus groups I conduct or see, a show’s trivia feature usually scores well. Ever wonder why?
If uniquely presented, they are vicarious. All game shows on TV are trivia-based yet every one is different – Who Wants to be a Millionaire and The Weakest Link are both trivia games done differently. A critical item must be noted that helps their popularity.
I’ll often explain a feature’s success from a strategic point-of-view. Today, let me tackle the success of a trivia feature psychologically.
Every trivia game isn’t about the person on the phone. That player is a conduit to your having fun and doing content directed at everyone not on the phone. But its success is about how addictive it can be to those thousands of people in their cars playing along. What are they looking for? Fun, yes. But…
When you ask a player on the air trivia questions in a game and tell them if they’re right or wrong, if the listener in their car gets it right in their head, you give them a hit of dopamine. You make them feel smarter. Ask a bunch of trivia questions, every one the listener gets right is another dopamine hit for those in cars who get it right, too.
If they leave the feature feeling smarter, they come back for more the next day for the same reason. That makes your feature addictive. (Kinda like if I share a compliment every time I see you, you want to see me more!)
The converse is true, too. Some trivia features seem to have as a goal to ask hard questions so the person on the phone and those in cars playing along struggle. Don’t do that!!! Your fans in cars playing along just woke up and they have limited mental bandwidth. If you force them to think too hard, they’ll bail, believing your feature is too difficult (hence, no dopamine hits).
Evaluate your trivia feature. Is it unique in its presentation? Are you focused on what really makes it successful – people in cars? And are you dishing out the dopamine, so they get addicted and come back for more?