Leaderboard Position Psychology

Abstract

One of the main principles of gamification is the use of social comparison. Leaderboards are commonly used to allow players to compare their performance against others'. We sought to examine how leaderboard ranking affected satisfaction with a game and desire to play a game again. In our study, individuals in a second, fourth, or seventh position on the leaderboard reported higher satisfaction than individuals in other positions on the leaderboard. Our results support a potential mechanism that might contribute to game satisfaction from leaderboard position: counterfactual thinking. Future work and implications for the design of leaderboards are discussed.

Designing Leaderboards for Gamification

“…Another study from Sun and colleagues identified an association between leaderboard positions and players' satisfaction ratings of a digital game. Players in this study reported higher levels of satisfaction when they appeared in the second, fourth or seventh position [27]. These studies demonstrated that people's perceived preference for leaderboards was also influenced by how their performance was reflected by their positions on the leaderboards in digital games.…”

“…Other research categorized leaderboards into two types: "nodisincentive" and "infinite" leaderboards [27,31]. Leaderboards, when used in social network websites like Facebook, aim to create social incentives rather than disincentives.…”

“…Among these 5 questions, question 2 and 3 were designed to elicit feedback about the leaderboard, and questions 4 and 5 were designed to elicit feedback about the corresponding application domains. These questions were adapted from survey questions in previous research on people's preferences for game elements in gamification [16,27].…”

“…In the example of leaderboards in Olympic games, researchers explained the finding that bronze medalists reported higher levels of happiness than silver medalists because of the notion of "what could have been," which implies that silver medalists framed their thinking about the fact that they could have won a gold medal, while and bronze medalists understood their ranking as being better than not having received any medal at all [14]. For leaderboards in digital games, in the example of Gold Mine, Sun and colleagues found that players reported higher satisfaction when they appeared in positions 2, 4, and 7 [27].…”

How Do One's Peers on a Leaderboard Affect Oneself?

“…To be sure, some studies have attempted to manipulate one's position on the leaderboard and examined the associated effects. To give two illustrative examples, Sun et al (2015) had people play a short game and then showed them a simulated leaderboard where their position was randomized. They were then asked hypothetically about their willingness to replay the game.…”