In experiments pioneered by Skinner and repeated over the 1970s and 1980s, psychologists demonstrated (again using pigeons in boxes) the somewhat surprising truth that behavior consistently rewarded is in fact more prone to “extinction” than behavior inconsistently rewarded. While they may be initially slower to learn the connection between deed and consequence, pigeons rewarded after an inconsistent number of pecks kept at it. As psychologist David Myers comments, “Hope springs eternal.”

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 654