Methodology

The research

• Volkow, N. D., et al. (2011). Addiction: beyond dopamine reward circuitry. PNAS.

  Nora Volkow’s work on drug addiction found lower dopamine D2 receptor availability in people with addiction, linked to low motivation and a muted response to everyday rewards. Whether phones and short-form video cause the same changes is still an open research question. The Dopamine Score does not measure brain chemistry. It is a behavioral proxy that makes your day-to-day pattern visible, so you can see it moving.

• Schultz, W. (2016). Dopamine reward prediction error coding. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience.

  Wolfram Schultz’s prediction-error work shows that dopamine neurons respond to the anticipation of reward, not only the reward itself. That is why Rewire puts its main tool at the moment of anticipation: the urge button, pressed when you feel the pull, before the app opens.

The research

• Duhigg, C. (2012). The Power of Habit. Random House.

  Duhigg’s book popularised the three-part loop of cue, routine and reward, drawing on habit research from MIT. In Rewire, the urge is the cue, the intervention or alternative action is the routine, and the change in your score and SIGNAL feedback is the reward.

• Wood, W., & Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of Habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67.

  Wendy Wood’s research shows that habits run on context-dependent automaticity, not conscious motivation, and that lasting change means changing cues and context, not just goals. It is the reason Predictive Urges is next on the roadmap: using SIGNAL data to spot the contexts where your urges start, so Rewire can step in earlier.

• Lally, P., et al. (2010). How are habits formed. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6).

  Lally’s UCL study found that habit formation took a median of 66 days, with wide variation (18 to 254 days). So Rewire does not treat a habit as done at day 21 or day 30. The Recovery part of the score keeps rewarding clean days, and your streak keeps running after any challenge ends.

The research

• Verbruggen, F., & Logan, G. D. (2008). Response inhibition in the stop-signal paradigm. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

  Reflex Override is built on inhibitory control training, where you practise stopping a response on cue. Studies of this protocol report effects on alcohol consumption, snacking, and impulsive behavior. Rewire turns the lab task into a two-minute mobile exercise.

• Marlatt, G. A., & Donovan, D. M. (2005). Relapse Prevention (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.

  Urge Surfing comes from Alan Marlatt’s mindfulness-based relapse prevention: watch the craving rise, peak and fade like a wave without acting on it. Rewire’s version is a wave you trace with your finger, so you feel the rise and fall during the urge itself.

• Coles, N. A., et al. (2022). A multi-lab test of the facial feedback hypothesis. Nature Human Behaviour.

  Face Calm combines facial feedback with muscle relaxation. This multi-lab study found that facial posture has a small but reliable effect on emotional state.

• Jacobson, E. (1938). Progressive Relaxation. University of Chicago Press.

  Pressure Release uses Jacobson’s progressive muscle relaxation together with the TIPP skills (temperature, intense exercise, paced breathing, paired muscle relaxation) from dialectical behavior therapy. Progressive muscle relaxation has decades of clinical use behind it.

The research

• Marlatt, G. A., & Donovan, D. M. (2005). Relapse Prevention (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.

  Relapse-prevention research describes the abstinence violation effect: after one lapse, people often decide the whole attempt has failed and give up entirely. Lives and banked milestones work against that, so a single slip costs one life instead of the whole challenge.

The research

• Ferster, C. B., & Skinner, B. F. (1957). Schedules of Reinforcement. Appleton-Century-Crofts.

  Variable-ratio reinforcement produces the most persistent behavior and the slowest extinction. It is the same mechanism slot machines and social feeds use. Rewire points it at the actions you chose to build, never at time spent in the app, and caps it per day.

The research

• Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits. Avery.

  Clear’s synthesis argues that behavior change lasts when it is tied to a shift in self-concept rather than an outcome goal, drawing on identity theory in sociology and the self-perception tradition from Daryl Bem.

• Bem, D. J. (1972). Self-perception theory. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 6.

  Bem proposed that people infer their attitudes from watching their own behavior. Rewire shows each defeated urge back to you, for example in the urges defeated count on the home screen, as evidence of who you are becoming.