Gary Mortimer: Queensland University of Technology Marketing Professor on the rise of free 'dopamine apps'

A new trend has emerged, where people are ordering fake takeaways and filling online shopping carts knowing they'll never receive a thing. 

This viral trend is gaining popularity, with one platform, FoodNeverComes, claiming nearly 1 million 'cravings satisfied' to date.

Queensland University of Technology, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, says this gives consumers a version of the online shopping experience in order to stave off boredom. 

"The research shows that we're more inclined to do online shopping...generally in the evenings. We've got home from work, we've had dinner, we sit down and go - I might just pick up my phone and see what's available online." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Together do for see Ellen the Pack and Saber also
franchises same same Thank you, Greg, nineteen past five. Now,
as I told you, apparently people have taken to a
weird thing online, which is that they order fake takeaways
that never arrive and they fill their online shopping carts
and then they never click through. They never get a thing,
but they go through this whole process because that chasing

(00:20):
a dopamine hit. Gary Mortimer is professor of Marketing and
Consumer Behavior at Queensland University of Technology and with us.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hi, Gary, Hi, great to chat.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
It's good to talk to you. This is mental, isn't
it like that the dopamine is that addictive that you
have to go through this process.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
It is quite bizarre. And when I started reading these
these articles about dopamine apps or dopamine sites, I did
have to do a little bit of research and sort
of scratch my head the whole time. And essentially they
are as you describe them, that they're designed to mimic
an online shopping platform for fashion or a food delivery

(00:59):
app like Arawedash or e breats. You go through the
same process. You know, you go through cuisines and restaurants,
you select your items. If you're shopping online for fashion,
you pick a couple of items, you put them into
your basket. With the food shopping app, you can actually
watch sort of track and deliver to your house, but
it never arrives, you never charge for anything, and it's

(01:19):
designed just to keep people I guess, away from boredom
in many ways, is what they're suggesting.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Really, I mean, what is it that sad that we
as wisdom is so bored that we have to do
these fake things.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
So the research I did sort of scratch my headle
of this myself, the research of the show that we're
more inclined to do our online shopping interest. See what
your listeners have to say about this. But generally, in
the evenings, after we've got home from work, we've had dinner,
we sit down and we go, oh, we might just
pick up our smartphone and have a little look what's
available online, and before now, before you know, we're sort

(01:53):
of shopping online and we're buying things online. So these
these sites are designed to sort of give you that
same I guess feeling of control, gamification, the anticipation finding
something new, the same experience, the same excitement, but without
having to pay for anything at the end of.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
The day, Gary, is there anything wrong with people chasing
all those little dopamine hits, Like, is there a downside
to that?

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, I guess there's a couple. Number one is that
this notion of gateway behavior. And while these types of
sites are very new, they're only starting to emerge now.
There's been plenty of studies around sort of gambling sites,
so free gambling sites where you're not really gambling, you're
not using real money. A number of studies have shown
that if you start to play with these sites early enough,
you get that hit, that dopemine hip, you're more inclined

(02:40):
to shop to gamble with real money on real sites.
And the other one is privacy. Of course, I mean,
if you put anything online or put anything into an app,
it's obviously going to be tracked and the data sold elsewhere.
And certainly the online shopping platform Dopamine Shop will actually
very happily discloses. It will track your cookies, it will

(03:03):
sort of track what items you put into your cart
and how much you intend to spend. So you can
imagine if you're buying that fake cashmere coat probably next week,
that a real cashmere coat will pop up on your
Facebook if you're looking to be purchased.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah, I hear, Yeah, Hey Gary, Thanks very much man,
this is really fascinating stuff. Gary Mortimer, Professor of Marketing
and Consumer Behavior at Queensland University of Technology. For more
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