Michaeleen Doucleff

I do.

It's called Dopamine Kids.

And in one part of it, I explore why so many of us, including myself, can't put down our darn phones.

I don't know how that happens.

Yeah, for me, Emily, it feels like there's this kind of super glue on the phone holding me there.

Turns out that feeling isn't accidental.

Many apps are designed to do this.

Yeah, and the companies are appealing those verdicts.

But scientists have already spent more than a decade identifying the exact features that tech companies use to keep us glued to apps for as long as possible.

So, Emily, I have for you today the super glue recipe, as the anthropologist Natasha Dalshall puts it.

Yes, they have deep roots in the gambling industry.

I'm Michaeline Ducliffe.

And you're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.

Yeah, so we're going to rewind 40 years ago, way back in the 1980s, when the casino industry underwent a massive transformation and created what many scientists think is the most addictive form of gambling ever.

Oh, how did they do that?

So they went around and ripped up nearly everything.

all the mechanical slot machines and all those green felt poker tables and replaced them all with digital versions of these games.

So video-based slot machines, video-based poker machines, they did this because these machines were way cheaper to maintain

But also they allowed the casino industry to add in all these extra features to them.

They're like apps with giant touchscreens and these ergonomic chairs attached to them.