Look and earn less, don't look and earn more

The effect of looking at AdSense earnings

[MonkeyFace]

Ok, so this might be a funny psychological effect or it could be something real.

Did anyone else notice that if you look at your earnings every hour (almost), you earn less; and if you don't log on to the AdSense panel for a couple of days, you earn substantially more?

:D

[topr8]

no, i go months without logging on and then i log on every day multiple times for a week or so.

there is no noticeable effect that i have seen.

[eniac]

omg, is this new super ultra mega adsense Algo? :)

Interesting and if it is true, I cant find anything to say to G

[denisl]

A watched pot never boils!

[HuskyPup]

Like watching paint dry?

Yep, it's a well-known pyschological effect especially common amongst AdSensers wondering just where the drain hole is that's been opened at the bottom of their monitor and it doesn't matter how much superglue you squirt in it the money leaks out even faster, evaporates, blows away and then mysteriously appears in someone else's account...usually an MFAer...arghhh

[Lapizuli]

if you look at your earnings every hour

Only every hour? Maybe that kind of pace works for refrigerator checks, to see if something tasty appears. That won't do diddleysquat to earnings, though.

Now, refreshing at a rate of 10-20 VPM (visits per min.) - that works. AdSense is just like mothering. Constant nagging and prodding - sure, it's like pulling teeth, but it keeps those stats in line.

(Okay, slight exaggeration, I really - wait, hold on, I've gotta check something.)

[Scurramunga]

Yes, I noticed this also. However like with most things to do with Adsense these days, it lost it's effect. ;-)

[maximillianos]

On a serious note, has anyone else noticed that when you go from the old user interface to the new, and then back to the old it often results in a stats update? Happens to me more often than not. :-)

[explorador]

Funny, I was thinking about it this last week. My earnings went down so much I stopped looking, then surprise, earnings went up and I said to myself "they don't like when you look huh?".

[dibbern2]

I've noticed something similiar when you watch movies starring Kevin Kostner. If you watch continuously from the start, it seems nothing ever happens. But if you start, then take a nap or go walking for about two hours, and then tune back into the movie, you'll see that something has happened; the plot has advanced, at least a little.

[sabrebIade]

Observer effect (physics)
The impact of observation on quantum systems has been demonstrated experimentally...
[en.wikipedia.org...]

[astrobiologist]

Sounds like an offshoot of the quantum Zeno effect. Adsense earnings unwatched split into two possibilities, low and high. If you watch too often you keep resetting the Adsense wave function to the low state. Leave it alone and it'll evolve to the high state. At least, it'll seem that way.