Chapter 10 Quiz: Social Rewards and the Approval Economy — Why Likes Feel Like Love

Multiple Choice

Select the best answer for each question.

Question 1. The like button was introduced to Facebook on which date?

A) November 12, 2007 B) February 9, 2009 C) March 14, 2010 D) January 6, 2012

Answer: B. The Facebook like button launched on February 9, 2009, following approximately two years of internal development and debate after Justin Rosenstein's original "awesome button" proposal in 2007.

Question 2. Which brain region activates in response to social rejection, and what makes this finding particularly significant?

A) The hippocampus — significant because it shows social rejection impairs memory B) The amygdala — significant because it links social rejection to fear responses C) The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex — significant because the same region activates in response to physical pain D) The prefrontal cortex — significant because it shows social rejection impairs decision-making

Answer: C. Eisenberger and Lieberman's 2003 Science study demonstrated that social rejection activates the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) — the same region activated by physical pain — demonstrating that social and physical pain share neural substrates.

Question 3. Leon Festinger's social comparison theory, published in 1954, proposes that:

A) People tend to overestimate their social status relative to their actual standing B) People have a fundamental drive to evaluate their own abilities and opinions by comparing themselves to others C) Social comparison is primarily motivated by the desire to feel superior to others D) Social approval is more motivating than material rewards in most circumstances

Answer: B. Festinger proposed that humans have a fundamental drive to evaluate their own opinions and abilities, and that when objective standards are unavailable, they do so by comparing themselves to other people. This is the theoretical basis for understanding why numerical like counts are comparison triggers.

Question 4. What did Justin Rosenstein originally call the like button concept when he proposed it at Facebook in 2007?

A) The "thumbs" button B) The "positive" button C) The "awesome" button D) The "cheer" button

Answer: C. Rosenstein proposed what he called the "awesome button" — a quick, frictionless way to express appreciation for a post without writing a comment. It launched in 2009 as the "Like" button.

Question 5. Research on adolescent brain development shows that, compared to adults, adolescents show:

A) Lower striatal activation in response to positive social feedback and higher activation to negative feedback B) Greater striatal activation in response to positive social feedback and greater deactivation in response to negative feedback C) Similar striatal responses to social feedback, but with longer processing times D) Higher sensitivity to peer disapproval but similar sensitivity to peer approval

Answer: B. Research by Eva Telzer and colleagues found that adolescents showed greater ventral striatum activation in response to positive social feedback than adults, and greater deactivation in response to negative social feedback — reflecting the hyperresponsiveness of the adolescent social reward system.

Question 6. An internal Instagram research document made public in 2021 found that Instagram made body image issues worse for what percentage of teenage girls?

A) 12 percent B) 21 percent C) 32 percent D) 44 percent

Answer: C. The internal Facebook/Instagram document found that 32 percent of teenage girls reported that Instagram made them feel worse about their bodies when they already felt bad about them. The document was reported by The Wall Street Journal in September 2021.

Question 7. Why do comments carry a higher reward value than likes, according to the chapter's discussion?

A) Comments are delivered in real-time notifications while likes are batched B) Comments require the commenter to invest more effort, making them a stronger signal of genuine appreciation C) Comments are more visible in the platform interface than like counts D) Comments come from a smaller, more select group of users than likes

Answer: B. The effort asymmetry between likes (a single tap requiring no cognitive investment) and comments (requiring formulation of a thought, typing, and attaching one's name to it) makes comments a stronger approval signal. Research by Meshi and colleagues confirmed stronger neural reward responses to comments than likes.

Question 8. In the context of Chapter 10, what does the phrase "variable social reward" mean?

A) That different types of posts (photos vs. text) receive different amounts of social approval B) That the amount of social approval any given post will receive is uncertain at the time of posting C) That social approval signals (likes, comments, shares) are worth different amounts D) That platforms vary the timing of social approval delivery to increase its impact

Answer: B. Variable social reward refers to the uncertainty of how a post will perform — the creator doesn't know at the time of posting whether it will receive three likes or three hundred. This uncertainty creates the variable reinforcement schedule that is most neurologically potent, as research on reward prediction error and dopaminergic responses confirms.

Question 9. Twitter converted its "favorite" button (star icon) to a heart icon in which year?

A) 2013 B) 2014 C) 2015 D) 2016

Answer: C. Twitter converted the star-based "favorite" button to a heart icon in November 2015. The change was motivated partly by research showing hearts produced stronger engagement responses than stars.

Question 10. Instagram's 2019 hidden like count experiment was rolled out in which initial group of countries?

A) United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain B) Canada, Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand C) Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, Australia D) Brazil, Mexico, India, Japan, Australia

Answer: B. Instagram initially tested hidden like counts in Canada, Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand, beginning in April 2019.

Question 11. What happened to Instagram's hidden like count experiment by 2021?

A) It was expanded globally after research showed significant wellbeing improvements B) It was permanently ended after creator backlash and mixed research findings C) A compromise was reached where users could choose whether to see like counts on their own and others' posts, with the public default restored D) The experiment was transferred to Facebook, with Instagram reverting to full public counts

Answer: C. Instagram settled on a compromise: users could choose to hide their own like counts and to hide like counts on others' posts, but the public default was restored to visible counts. The episode revealed the business model's dependence on social reward visibility.

Question 12. According to Chapter 10, which of the following best describes what "digitized, quantified, and weaponized" means in the chapter's concluding phrase about social approval?

A) Platforms created new forms of social approval that did not exist before technology B) Platforms converted an ancient human neurological need into a number, made that number public and persistent, and engineered its delivery for maximum behavioral engagement C) Platforms discovered that social approval was addictive and designed systems to exploit this discovery D) Platforms used social approval data to target advertising at users who were most susceptible

Answer: B. The phrase describes the specific transformations platforms applied to the existing human need for social approval: converting it to a quantity (number), making that quantity public and persistent, adding algorithmic distribution and variability, and engineering the entire experience for maximum engagement — not inventing the need but fundamentally changing its form and delivery.

True or False

State whether each claim is true or false and provide a brief explanation.

Question 13. The human brain's response to social approval and social rejection is entirely separate from the brain circuits that process physical pleasure and pain.

Answer: False. Research by Eisenberger and Lieberman demonstrated that social rejection activates the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex — the same region activated by physical pain. Social reward activates the ventral striatum and related dopaminergic circuits associated with other primary physical rewards. The social and physical reward/pain systems substantially overlap.

Question 14. Leah Pearlman, one of the co-creators of the Facebook like button, has publicly expressed regret about the dynamics the feature created.

Answer: True. Pearlman, a product manager at Facebook who worked on the like button's implementation, described in 2017 interviews having developed a problematic relationship with the feature she helped build, including checking her posts' performance multiple times daily and experiencing genuine distress at low-engagement posts. She has spoken publicly about this on multiple occasions.

Question 15. According to the chapter, the desire for social approval is a product of the digital age that was largely absent before social media.

Answer: False. The chapter argues the opposite: the desire for social approval is among the most ancient and biologically fundamental features of the human nervous system, evolved over millions of years in which social standing was correlated with survival. Social media did not create this desire; it created new delivery mechanisms and new forms for it.

Question 16. Festinger's social comparison theory predicts that comparing yourself to people who appear to be doing better than you (upward social comparison) will generally improve performance motivation.

Answer: Partially true/nuanced. Festinger's theory itself does not straightforwardly predict this; subsequent research shows the effects of upward social comparison are mixed. In some contexts, upward comparison can motivate performance improvement. In others — particularly where the comparison involves attributes perceived as fixed (physical appearance, inherent social desirability) rather than improvable skills — upward comparison decreases self-esteem and wellbeing. On Instagram specifically, research consistently shows that upward social comparison produces negative wellbeing effects.

Question 17. The creator economy's dependence on engagement metrics is described in Chapter 10 as simply adding financial stress to the pre-existing psychological dynamics of the approval economy.

Answer: False. Chapter 10 argues the creator economy's dependence on engagement metrics is a qualitative, not merely quantitative, change: it fundamentally alters the relationship between the creator and their content, because authentic self-expression is now filtered through the economic calculus of engagement optimization. The creator becomes, in a real sense, an employee of the algorithm. This is described as a structural change, not merely an amplification of existing dynamics.

Question 18. Research shows that receiving uncertain social approval (not knowing how a post will perform) produces a stronger dopaminergic response than receiving expected approval.

Answer: True. A 2020 study published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience found that social approval produced stronger dopaminergic responses when uncertain at the time of posting than when approval was expected. This is consistent with reward prediction error mechanics described in Chapter 8 — unpredictable positive outcomes produce larger dopaminergic responses than predicted ones.

Short Answer

Answer each question in 3-5 sentences.

Question 19. Explain why Instagram functions as a "comparison machine" in a way that differs from ordinary social environments. What specific features of the platform make its social comparison dynamics more potent than comparison in typical offline settings?

Answer: Instagram functions as a comparison machine in three ways that amplify comparison beyond ordinary social contexts. First, it quantifies social approval as a public number, making comparison explicit and arithmetic rather than approximate and contextual. Second, its algorithmic feed selectively presents high-performing content, creating a non-representative sample where users are systematically exposed to posts with higher-than-average engagement, making others' apparent success appear greater than it typically is. Third, it enables comparison with thousands of people — not just the dozens in an ordinary social environment — including accounts with dramatically more followers or higher engagement, providing unlimited upward comparison targets that are completely outside the range of ordinary social experience. The combination of quantification, algorithmic selection, and scale makes Instagram's comparison environment categorically more intense than ordinary social life.

Question 20. Describe Maya's experience of "content self-censorship" as depicted in Chapter 10. What does this experience reveal about the psychological effect of the approval economy on authentic self-expression?

Answer: Maya twice chose not to post content she genuinely liked — a photograph she found beautiful, a caption she thought was funny — because she couldn't shake the anticipation that these posts wouldn't receive good engagement. This reveals that the approval economy has trained her to filter her self-expression through the projected preferences of an approval-granting audience rather than her own authentic creative or social impulses. The mechanism is a learned behavioral pattern: her history of social feedback has taught her what the algorithm (and her specific audience) approves, and she has internalized this approval model as a pre-censorship filter. The psychological cost is that genuine self-expression — sharing something because it matters to her — has been partially replaced by performed self-expression — sharing what she predicts will be received well. Chapter 10 presents this as one of the approval economy's most significant downstream effects.

Question 21. What was the business logic that led Instagram to reverse the hidden like count experiment in most markets? What does this reversal reveal about the relationship between the platform's business model and the social reward system?

Answer: The reversal was driven by two converging pressures: creator backlash from professional content creators and influencers, whose ability to demonstrate value to brand partners depended on visible engagement metrics; and mixed research findings showing that hidden like counts did not dramatically improve wellbeing outcomes, as users adapted by using follower counts and comment counts as proxy metrics. The reversal reveals that the social reward visibility is structural to the platform's business model, not incidental to it. Visible like counts serve as social proof for content quality, as brand partnership metrics, and as engagement drivers. Removing them was an experiment in disrupting the economic architecture of the platform, not merely a design change. The partial reversal — allowing individual choice but restoring the public default — was the minimum concession that addressed creator concerns without fully removing the business functionality of the social approval display system.

Question 22. How does the neurological reality of social approval — the activation of genuine reward circuits with genuine dopaminergic signals — complicate simple explanations that reduce the like button's effects to "insecurity" or "vanity"?

Answer: Reducing the like button's effects to "insecurity" or "vanity" implies that well-adjusted, confident people would be immune to it — that only some flaw of character makes social approval rewarding. The neurological evidence dismantles this framing. Social approval activates the ventral striatum and medial prefrontal cortex — the brain's reward circuits — through the same dopaminergic mechanisms that respond to food, warmth, and other primary rewards. These circuits evolved over millions of years in which social acceptance was genuinely life-or-death relevant. The response to social approval is not a sign of weakness; it is an evolved biological mechanism present in virtually all humans. The like button exploits a universal feature of human neural architecture, not a personal failing. This reframing matters because it shifts responsibility from the individual user (who is "too insecure") to the design system that deliberately targets a fundamental biological vulnerability.