[johnnyanmac]

> sure Hacker News will have some earnest argument for why this form of competition is actually good for people.

Nope, the current consensus this time is HN assuming they know better than a researcher (and decades of business) and inserting their own opinions.

>The kind of person who looks at this sort of thing and says, "Hey we should use this to manipulate people" is the kind of person our society needs less of.

Ever since JC Penney, I grew apathetic. People want to be tricked, why ruin their fun?