Why Do People Rarely Choose Team Instinct Option in Pokémon Go?
As players of Pokémon Go are already well aware of, team Mystic, Valor and Instinct are the three options in the team – selection step, after reaching level five. Noticeably enough though, team Instinct seems to be the least popular team among the players and the possible reasons for that are examined below.
First of all, each team has a distinct philosophy, motto, symbol and color, all of which are presented to the players as possible determinants of their choice. However, team Instinct seems to lack in some aspects that would normally trigger instinctively players’ interest. For example, its philosophy of playing according to intuition is far less tempting comparing to a philosophy of power or calm, scientific analysis as proposed by team Valor and Mystic, accordingly.
In addition, according to many players, what also plays a decisive role is the Pokémon that represents each team (Sukonik, 2016). Therefore, many players choose team Mystic only because its symbol is Articuno, one of the most known and popular Pokémons. On the contrary, team Instinct’s Pokemon, Zapdos, is less popular.
Another possible interpretation lies in the influence and popularity that the color of each team has (Sukonik, 2016), since according to statistics, blue and red were found to be more popular than yellow (Wolchover, 2012). Nevertheless, players may also be driven by their decision to play in the same team as their friends’, thus resulting in a not homogeneous distribution of players among the three teams. If one also takes into consideration the popularity dimension of each team, as discussed above, it is clear why team Instinct is the least preferred.
In conclusion, it seems that all possible interpretations are based, at least partly, on psychological grounds. Either driven by discernible factors e.g. symbol, etc. that are associated to success and popularity, or by invisible factors that subconsciously lead players to choose the team with the characteristics that are most familiar with, decisions on team-selection seem to be quite predictive, leaving team Instinct behind.
References
Sukonik, N. (2016). [online] Available at: https://www.quora.com/Why-arent-many-people-choosing-team-Instinct-in-Pok%C3%A9mon-GO [Accessed 10 Aug. 2016].
Wolchover, N. (2012). Humanity’s Favorite Colors | What’s Your Favorite Color?. [online] Live Science. Available at: http://www.livescience.com/34105-favorite-colors.html [Accessed 10 Aug. 2016].
