Gamification and Habit Formation: Solutions for the continuous deterioration of Filipino

society’s discipline from improving and preserving the community and environment inside
Intramuros

Concept Paper

Jairah Faith B. Cammayo

Humanities and Social Sciences-12
In partial requirements to HUM06

Time Frame: the effect will be seen evidently in the span of 2-3 months
This concept proposal’s initial place and ideal place to be tested on is inside Intramuros,
Manila since the photographs are mostly taken inside Intra. After further testing, results
and data should be analyzed to see if it will be applicable for the whole Philippine Society.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………. 3

II. Statement of the problem……......................................................................................….. 4

III. Fallacy to be used………………………………………………………………………… 5

IV. Body……………..………………………………………………………………………… 7

V. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………… 10

VI. References…………………………………………………………………………………. 10
 INTRODUCTION

Philippines is believed to be one of the most gifted country in the world. With the country’s
overloading gift from nature and history, it is a must for each and every Filipino citizen to take
good care of these gifts especially that the country is a place for habitat, a place to reminisce the
past, and most importantly, these ‘treasures of the Philippines’ completes the idea of the identity
of Philippine society. Some treasures of the country are islands and tourist attractions like
Palawan, Boracay, Chocolate Hills in Bohol especially historical places like Vigan in Ilocos and
Intramuros in Manila. Historical places in the Philippines are known to be ‘preserved’ because
people find it irreplaceable; thus these places are the number one priority of the people in a
society. But as time pass, noticeable change in the society and environment starts to flourish.
Today’s year 2019, the historical places in the country seem to be disappearing from the society
because of the negligence of the people. Intramuros Manila, as also shown in the photograph,
had a huge change, and an example of this is the “Parian” in Intramuros Garden inside the walls;
where the entrance of the place is not as good as it has always been in the past. Upon entering the
place, the smell of disgusting waste water dwells in every person who are to enter the Garden,
this is believed to be the cause of ‘canal’ or polluted water from the wastes of people residing
inside Intramuros. The probability of the Garden getting more polluted will increase due to the
relocation of the small eatery businesses from outside Mapua University.
The probability is heightened not just because of relocation, but because of the people
themselves. Lack of discipline, care and awareness in the surroundings will truly result to a
polluted place, but when discipline and care will be considered by everyone, most likely, with or
without relocations, the pollution from the garden will be lowered. When this continues and will
be applied for the whole place in Intramuros, it is not only the place that will be safe and
nurtured, but also the people as well. This will surely bring an impact to the society of
Intramuros.

Research questions in this study are, 1) How can the people of Intramuros have the discipline to
achieve their goal in maintaining safety and preserving the beauty of the place? 2) If there are
barriers from improvement, what are those barriers that keeps the people from improving and
having the discipline? Is the fallacy Tu Quoque one of the most contributing factor? 3) What can
be done to resolve or to break these barriers that keeps the people from improving and having the
discipline? In this study, the paper aims to understand what are the barriers affecting the people’s
motivation for a change, how can the problem be resolved or what is the solution to this problem,
and what will be the effect of the hypothetical solution, that is gamification and habit formation,
will be implemented.
 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Due to the increasing problem of the society concerning the government, education and crimes,
societal problem regarding the environment has not been the main priority lately, but because of
this negligence, it has resulted to destruction as well; take for example the large fire incident that
happened in the Amazon Rain Forest. Because of this issue, the internet were bombarded by the
sudden news and the youth started to take actions, like Greta Thunberg and her Speech at the
United Nations Climate Summit. This is the same for the situation that’s happening inside
Intramuros. People in the Philippines want to preserve and develop the treasures inside this very
historical place because there is no other place like Intramuros to depict every events in
Filipinos’ History.

There is only are multiple variables that keeps the potential of the vision for the society inside
the country from becoming real or being implemented, and that is the Filipino people
themselves, and their lack of discipline and awareness for their surroundings, that results to
deterioration of the beauty that has been long preserved and destruction of the place itself due to
pollution. If people also continues their avoidance to the issue, the negative effect of pollution
will have a higher chance to cause harm to the people living inside the place. This will keep
the society from improving.

In this paper, the researcher will analyze the problem, identify what causes the problem and
provide hypothetical solutions, which will be tested; afterwards, data and results will be treated,
and will be checked if it is applicable for implementation.
 FALLACY TO BE USED

TU QUOQUE APPEAL TO IGNORANCE AVOIDING THE ISSUE

Bystander Effect

Negligence of People

Barrier from improvement

Fig. 1 Theoretical Framework of the Effect of the Fallacy Tu Quoque

APPEAL TO IGNORANCE

This logical fallacy is also known as “ad ignoratiam.” The assumption of a claim is valid to be
correct or incorrect if the person is not aware of it or is lacking of evidence (Walton, 2010).

Ad ignoratiam as a reflection of the lack of discipline and awareness

The significance of the logical fallacy, Ad ignoratiam, to the problem is that the
people’s lack of discipline and awareness reflects ‘ignorance’ towards their community,
and because of this ignorance, people tend to invalidate a certain problem, such as the
destruction of their surroundings, because they are “unaware” of it therefore they are not
to blame. This has a relatively huge significance towards the issue.

AVOIDING THE ISSUE

This fallacy is also known as missing the point or straying off the subject. This is when a person
avoids an addressed issue by stating another argument or deviating the issue into a question
(Archieboy, n.d).

Avoiding the issue of the people resulting to negative effects

 Most Filipino citizens tend to divert the issue presented to them especially when
they are not able to defend themselves from the fact that they are contributors of the
destruction of the surroundings thus resulting to negative effects.

TU QUOQUE

Tu Quoque or most commonly known as appeal to hypocrisy, which the Latin etymology of this
word means “you too,” is voiding or claiming the argument to be “faulty” because the opponent,
or the arguer himself has done it or is currently doing it as well (Walton, 1998).

Tu Quoque as the most contributing factor

From further analysis of what is the relevance of the fallacy is to the problem, it has been
hypothesized that the fallacy of Tu Quoque is a big contributor of the barriers that keeps a
society from improving, mainly because of the overall context of what Appeal to
hypocrisy is. One evidence that this is a contributing factor is that people tend to throw or
spread away their wastes from anywhere because of the fact that no one is stopping them
and the fact that people believes in the saying: “other people do it, might as well do it
too.” And because of this logical fallacy implanted in every individual’s mindset, it has a
high chance to produce the psychological phenomena, namely “the bystander effect.”
 BODY

TU QUOQUE APPEAL TO IGNORANCE AVOIDING THE ISSUE

Bystander Effect

Negligence of People

Barrier from improvement

SOLUTION

Gamification and Habit Formation

Fig. 2 Conceptual Framework of Gamification and Habit formation as a

solution for the problem

The logical fallacies presented above continues to dwell inside people’s minds resulting to the
“bystander effect,” and because of this psychological phenomena it leads to the action where
people are neglecting their roles as a good citizen to preserve and develop their surroundings.
BYSTANDER EFFECT

According to Psychology today (2019), the bystander effect is a phenomenon where because of
the numerous presence of others, it results to discouragement of an individual from getting
himself or herself involved in an emergency situation. Bystander effect is an indirect
relationship, the greater the number of the bystanders, the lesser the tendency of the people to
provide help to a person in distress. The probability of the people to take action in a crisis are
higher when there are few or no other witnesses present. This is same with the case of people
getting involved in the issue of negligence of preserving and developing the environment, where
because many people are involved in the issue, this decreases the tendency of the people to take
action and resolve the issue; and because of this, this results to the creation of barrier from
improvement, as seen in the figure above.

FILIPINO’S LAZINESS

The famous stereotype of a Filipino being lazy is also a factor that feeds the bystander
effect and the negligence towards their surroundings; because Filipino people have the tendency
to ignore something-an issue perhaps- it results to less improvement, and counter productivity
unless they find a solution for the problem and at the same time they find that solution to be
interesting and fun, then a solution for a problem, specifically the preservation of historical
places and environments, will be successful.

GAMIFICATION AND HABIT FORMATION

According to psychology, people tend to get themselves involved in a situation if they find that
situation interesting. In this study, Gamification and Habit formation is the hypothetical solution
for the issue regarding historical places and environment being wasted and destroyed.

Gamification is the process of making a certain activity to be more interactive and interesting to
aim for a goal. An example of gamification is classroom activities where the teachers make a
game for their students and they are told to have an achievement afterwards. This can be a
applied to be a habit for every Filipino citizen to make them more productive when facing a
certain issue especially when Filipinos only appeal to any interesting activities. One activity that
is currently been testing is the “basketball trashcan” where people are expected to throw their
wastes in the right bins by putting a ring above it thus making it creative and at the same time
interactive. This process of gamification and habit formation is believed to be effective within
the average time span of 66 days according to the studies of Philippa Lally from University
College London. The researcher also stated that when a person misses just one day of the routine,
she or he is supposed to do, the road to making a habit to a person will decline. That is why in
this study, it is important to keep track of the activities that will be implemented and should
assure that this gamification formation will turn into a habit, for the solution to be effective in
answering the issue.
 CONCLUSION

In conclusion of the study, the logical fallacies of the Filipino people along with their
stereotype characteristic of being lazy, have a vast significance and effect in the negligence of
the Philippine society’s environment, which in this case Intramuros is being involved. The
suggested solution or hypothetical solution for this problem is the Gamification and Habit
formation, where certain activity is the response and for the problem of the community having a
little to no interest in participating to any movements for change. The formation of habit in
gamification is believed to be more effective if it is kept an eye on, in the ideal time span of 66
days. For now, further testing of this hypothetical solution should be prioritized because this
might change the society’s point of view towards big change.

REFERENCES

Boaz, D. (2015). How Long Does It Take To Form A Habit With Gamification? Retrieved from
https://www.gameffective.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-form-a-habit-with-gamification/

Bunchball (2019). What is Gamification? Retrieved from

https://www.bunchball.com/gamification

Logically Fallacious. (2019). Avoiding the Issue. Retrieved from

https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/ Bo/LogicalFallacies/61/Avoiding-the-Issue

Psychology Today. (2019). Bystander Effect. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/

us/basics/bystander-effect

Walton, D. (1998). Ad hominem arguments. University of Alabama Press. Retrieved from

https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/11/Ad-Hominem-Tu-
quoque

Walton, D. (2010). Arguments from Ignorance. Penn State Press. Retrieved from
https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/56/Argument-from-
Ignorance