Could it be our best motivational tool?

But streaks can also be helpful and healthy, for example for people who are trying to get in shape or lose weight. “Strings can serve as a tangible indication of progress,” says Dr. Kaitlin Woolley, Cornell University marketing professor specializing in goal pursuit and motivation.

Of course, there are apps just for creating and tracking streaks: Habitify, Streakster, Streaks, Loop, Productive, and so on. Their obvious purpose is to encourage healthy habits. “Streaks give a sense of momentum, which is motivating,” says Woolley. “People feel like they’re on the road to success and that makes it psychologically easier to keep going.”

Silverman says streaks can help throughout life—in education (attendance, test scores, books read) and in the workplace (e.g., showing up on time or attending every meeting). Factories, she notes, proudly display signs showing how many days they’ve run accident-free.

In fact, the lure of a perfect streak runs deep in the human psyche. How can we use that to help ourselves without getting completely derailed when a streak inevitably ends?

The Rush of Reward

“People find streaks inherently valuable and motivating,” says Silverman, who has the receipts. together with dr Alixandra Barasch of the University of Colorado, she authored a study entitled On or Off Track: How (Broken) Streaks Affect Consumer Decisions, which was published in June Consumer Research Journal.

Duolingo knows this. It allows a customer to freeze their streak by using their virtual currency (‘gems’ and ‘lingots’ earned by completing lessons) to buy a ‘streak freeze’ if they know that he will miss a day.

Snapchat has countless teens who are into Snapstreaks, meaning you’ve exchanged Snaps with someone on consecutive days. A “fire” icon will appear with a number representing the days the Snapstreak is running.

The sadness of one young user can be felt on the “I lost my Snapstreak” page on Snapchat Support: “If you’ve lost your Snapstreak and you know you can snap (not chat) back and forth within the 24-hour window sent, please let us know.”

The power of symbols

Fires, ticks, coins, lingots — they’re all part of the psychological game, says Silverman. “People really appreciate icons and feedback on what they’ve done,” she says. Sometimes the urge to acquire icons becomes more important than what motivated her to start the series in the first place, she says.

Jordan Etkin, PhD, marketing professor at Duke University, says that icons “act almost like money when it comes to being an external reinforcer. It feels like currency, like you accumulate some credit, some value.”

For me, it was the numbers on my Wordle stats page all heading towards 100: games played, win percentage, current streak, max streak. It would look gorgeous. The stats and the Guess Distribution bar chart popped into my head like a judge’s assessment of my language skills.

When a streak breaks, Silverman says, “It’s particularly demotivating because people interpret that as a failure to score.”

I felt like a failure after bragging to friends about how close I was to a 100 game streak.

This is another reason we like streaks: it’s a way of showing off. Etkin says sharing results is a form of status signaling: “You feel like you look good to others.”

Caught! (For the record, I only shared my accomplishments and failures with those closest to me. My wife was amused.)

But while a paused streak feels like your progress has been “reset to zero,” it helps to remember that it hasn’t, Woolley says. “Just the specific aspect that people are tracking has been reset.” Breaking your daily walk streak will keep your fitness level.

“That depressed aspect inspired our project,” says Silverman. She and her husband, a craft beer lover, were at a brewery with friends, including Barasch, an associate professor of marketing. Her husband remarked that, as was his usual practice, he had failed to register a beer he had tasted the previous weekend. His logging streak was on hiatus, so he had less interest in logging the beer of the day. “That’s strange,” Silverman and Barasch said to each other, and years later their work was the result.

How streaks can help

Speaking of drinking, Silverman notes that one of the most well-known and valuable uses of the streak mentality is among members of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. You deserve medallions that mark milestones of sobriety.

When they relapse, “it’s pretty disheartening for them to go back to where they were,” she says. The supportive mentality of the organizations is impressive, she emphasizes: “They support each other and say: ‘No, you’ve earned this chip. You made this series. You’ve done it once and you can do it again. But just because you relapsed doesn’t mean it’s all over.”