The Power of Feedback Loops

The premise of a feedback loop is simple: provide people with information about their actions in real time, then give them a chance to change those actions, pushing them toward better behaviors. Why does putting our own data in front of us somehow compel us to act? In part, it's that feedback taps into something core to the human experience, even to our biological origins. Like any organism, humans are self-regulating creatures, and feedback loops are how we learn, whether we call it trial and error or course correction. In so many areas of life, we succeed when we have some sense of where we stand and some evaluation of our progress. As Stanford psychologist Albert Bandura puts it, "People are proactive, aspiring organisms," and feedback taps into those aspirations. This Wired Magazine article explores emerging tools that harness the power of feedback loops.

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