The psychologist named six reasons for the mega-popularity of the game Wordle

Recently The New York Times has acquired a game that went viral on the Internet Wordle. In turn, its creator, Briton Josh Wardle, received a fee for his offspring and became a millionaire – the exact amount was not disclosed, but it is known that it was some seven-figure figure.

The essence of the Wordle game, which the author named after himself, is simple: you have only six attempts to guess a five-letter word. A black square marks the letter that you guessed wrong. Yellow – a letter that is in the word, but in a different place. Green – the letter you correctly guessed.

The hidden word changes every day, and it is the same for the whole world.

Created in the fall of 2021, this puzzle became a hit – and by January 2022, the Internet was littered with colored squares, and on Twitter you can stumble upon discussions of the new “word of the day” on a global scale.

For example, when the word knoll (rarely used, with the meaning “hill”) was thought of, many English-speaking users admitted that they met him only once in the context of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and a strange figure that allegedly stands at a distance on a grassy hill.

Of course, not without analogues and parodies. Today we can meet Wordle in different languages ​​of the world, including in English

And even stumble upon some comic versions. For example Wordle with encrypted equations. Wordle, picking up the word so that you were as difficult as possible guess him. Or Wordle, in which you need to guess not the whole word, but one letter. And even Wordle with English 4 letter swear words. So if you want to expand your “colloquial” English, then you should like this version too.

Why has Wordle been such a global success?

Psychologist Matt Baldwin explained phenomenon of the game and pointed out several psychological concepts that explain our fascination with such simple, Field of Wonders-like fun.

1. Wordle gives you an “Aha!” moment, even if you’re losing.

The moment at the end of the puzzle, when we find out the answer, saturates us with very pleasant emotions. Even if we didn’t guess the word ourselves, this feeling of “Exactly!” or “Well, of course!” very catchy. According to Baldwin, this feeling is what we look for not only in games, but also when we are trying to solve a problem at work or in relationships with people.

2. The game distracts from the constant flow of disturbing news.

Wordle offers the perfect way to create what psychologists call “flow”: a pleasant immersion into something as we engage in an activity with the right mix of meaning and complexity. There is a feeling that you are training your brain, and not just pointlessly adding some squares on the screen. All this distracts us from disturbing thoughts and news.

3. Nice to share the results

Have you ever been a fan of, for example, a musical group that no one else seemed to know about, and then you met a person who also loves this particular group? This is the essence of shared reality theory – our subjective preferences seem justified to us when someone else shares them. With the result sharing feature, Wordle provides just such an experience.

“We like to tune our internal states to the internal states of other people,” Baldwin says. — I can think Wordle is fun. But when I see that everyone else on Twitter thinks it’s fun, it becomes an objective fact,” he adds.

4. Wordle is Resistant to Overeating: Scarcity Boosts Interest

An interesting feature of the game is that we can guess only one word per day. According to Baldwin, this is partly to keep the game from becoming “too mundane”. The rarity of the moment makes the game even more interesting.

5. The game satisfies our desire to fit the environment 

If you go to Twitter or Facebook, you can find posts like: “Yes, I also gave up and started playing Wordle.”

The concept of ingroup identity helps us to get closer to other people.

“Norms give us the opportunity to adjust our views, beliefs to the positions of other people in our group. It helps us come together and helps form a collective identity,” he says.

Posting Wordle results on your social media page is a way of saying, “Look at me, I also play Wordle like everyone else.” And it makes you feel like a member of a particular group.

6. The game allows you to demonstrate your intelligence in a socially acceptable way.

Sharing your Wordle scores also showcases your skills, allowing for social comparison. “Comparison can damage self-esteem if you always compare yourself to people who are out of reach,” he said. “But I can learn something about myself from the way I play against the background of others.” 

Conclusion

The global internet has loved Wordle so much because our brains have been programmed to love it. This game is much more than just a five-letter word guessing game. “Shared experiences give meaning to life,” Baldwin says. “He helps us navigate what is good, what makes sense.”

_{Text: Tatyana Zasypkina}