As gamers, I think we’ve all been there: You’re jamming along, feeling the rush as you shotgun foes in an online shooter or tear your car through the twists and turns of a realistically rendered race track. It’s exciting and in the best cases it may actually get our heart racing and our palms sweating. And when the match is over or the latest “Level Complete†screen pops up, you remember all the other things that you really should be doing. Maybe you have school tomorrow and it’s getting late. Or maybe your laundry is piling up and there are dishes in the sink. Hadn’t you intended to limit yourself to just half an hour of gaming?
And yet, you decide on just one more match, one more level, or one more quest. Why? Why would you do that?
To find out the answer, let us consider pornography. I know, I know. Some of you are thinking “Wait, what?†and the rest of you are probably thinking “Already way ahead of you, dude.†But bear with me.
In his book, Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely discusses research he and George Lowenstein (2006) did on the effects of sexual arousal on decision making.  Featuring one of the more interesting experimental designs I’ve seen, the researchers equipped male subjects with …well, you know there’s really no way to describe this without coming out and saying it: They gave a bunch of dudes laptops full of porn. Subjects watched said porn and at the zenith of their arousal, were asked some questions. You guys, THEY EVEN GOT PAID TEN BUCKS TO DO THIS!
