April 2011
Beginner
256 pages
5h 40m
English
Dopamine is also stimulated by unpredictability. When something happens that is not exactly predictable, it stimulates the dopamine system. Think about electronic devices. E-mails and tweets and texts show up, but you don’t know exactly when they will arrive, or who they will be from. It’s unpredictable. This is exactly what stimulates the dopamine system. It’s the same system at work for gambling and slot machines. Basically e-mail, Twitter, and most social media run on the variable ratio schedule discussed earlier in this chapter. That makes it likely that people will engage in the behavior again and again.
The dopamine system is especially sensitive to cues that a reward is coming. ...
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