The Super Mario Effect
Rather than penalizing failure, reminding people of the goal and saying “try again” significantly changes the probability of success.
| Number of Attempts | Success Rate | |
|---|---|---|
| -5 point penalty for each failure | 5 | 52% |
| No penalty, nudged to try again | 12 | 68% |
It’s just like playing Super Mario. In Super Mario, you die if you don’t control the game precisely, but people keep trying again. Eventually, they master the game and defeat the boss.
Failure is painful, but it leads us to focus on “What did we learn?” and “What can we do differently next time?”
The following two examples contain the same content, but feel completely different.
#1. You will be taking a test.
- Press button 3 for 5 seconds.
- Press button 6 for 1 second.
- Press buttons 3 and 5 for 6 seconds.
- Press button 4 for 3 seconds.
- Press buttons 6 and 1 for 6 seconds.
- Press buttons 2 and 4 for 2 seconds.
#2. Super Mario Game
- Hold the right button for 5 seconds
- Press the A button for 1 second
- Hold the right button and A button for 6 seconds
- Hold the left button for 3 seconds
- …