How to Get People to Like Important Stuff - My EduHack Series

Dopamine Candy-trail pt. 1: Familiarization

Giri Marhara

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My definition of familiarization: the process of connecting what you know and like, to what you don’t know and don’t like yet.

Say there is a high school student who hates history but loves action and violence. When he hears of history at school, he associates the topic with a set of boring, but obligatory tasks set out by the teacher for him to accomplish for causes his mind cannot comprehend yet. Which is the future, where his grades are needed to be able to get him a decent waged job. To him, all of that is boring lalala adult stuff that he finds completely unrelatable, since his daily TV consumption is stuff like power rangers, where the problems are solved with the fist, in an epic and exciting way—the way he likes to get things done. 

(Source: https://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/1016069/bored-kids-turn-violent)

His history grades plummet to bedrock, and lay there flat. Until, he discovers the video game Assassins Creed. That brings the exciting action he knows and love, into historical time settings—or rather, in actuality the game is just bringing the action of the past back to life. 

(source: https://www.123rf.com/photo_58677474_that-is-my-best-round-excited-young-handsome-man-playing-video-game-and-keeping-mouth-open-while-sit.html)

Which for whatever reason has been dulled by the poor and unengaging story delivery given by history teachers as his own. He loves Assassins Creed for the same reason you’d like a girl that has lots of similarities with you, so much so, she understands you—so does the game, which understands the exciting and action demanding soul of the young child, an understanding that history teachers have failed to show him.

 In those games, he begins to understand not just that they are kicking-ass, but why. He begins to understand under what circumstances people do such things, and begin to question the whole setting of the era. He then ventures on to fulfill his curiosity on how violence is even such a thing, and before he knows it, he finds his head sunk deep into the literature of great philosophers and scientists. What his teachers and parents have tried so hard to achieve though brute education force, was achieved so effortlessly, by a video game.

Assassins Creed Origins, the first game to bring ancient Egypt to life, history consultants have been heavily involved in the making of such games (Pic source: https://kotaku.com/assassin-s-creed-origins-six-months-later-1825602590)

Games like Assassins Creed are not meant to replace books and teachers, but they provide a certain amount of relatability to the player, as to ease their journey venturing into the depths of the topic. Like an introduction. It familiarizes its concepts within the realm of the players most basic of interests.

A good educator understands that educating is not only about knowing, but also engaging, and provoking interest and enthusiasm in students. As educators, we must be able to, first, identify the student’s basic interests, and most importantly, find its connection with our message. Once you find that connection, it’s yours to exploit. You can make a video game, comic book, or dance routine, maybe even a whole soap opera based on your message. Whatever it is, it’s important to make it familiar.

The word familiar, means that it’s a part of a family, not alien. A family is a bunch of individuals that have some sort of connection with each other. To familiarize, is to introduce a new family member (which is your message), into the family of things people know and like.

Here are some books that are not necessarily direct references, but definately inspired me into this school of thought:

Simon Sinek's Leaders Eat Last,
Daniel Goleman's Focus,
Daniel Goleman's Social Intelligence