Easter eggs: Signaling quality via intrinsic motivation
研究发现，产品中的彩蛋（隐藏元素）能提升消费者对产品质量的感知，其作用机制是让消费者觉得品牌员工更有内在动机。
Abstract Easter eggs are initially hidden elements of a consumer experience that have little direct commercial benefit for the brand. While Easter eggs may have been present in video games and software since the 1970s, they are now found in more and more consumer products such as cars, fashion, and fast food. This work explores the possible motivations for brands to include Easter eggs in their experiences by testing their effects on consumers during the post-purchase experience. It is found that Easter eggs serve as a new type of quality signal and positively affect perceived quality. The positive effect of Easter eggs on perceived product quality appears to be mediated by increased perceived intrinsic motivation of the brand’s employees. One study on Amazon.com reviews data on video games, and three online experiments on fashion, candy, and cars lend support to these hypotheses.