{"id":39563,"date":"2024-11-22T05:59:45","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T13:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=39563"},"modified":"2024-11-22T05:59:45","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T13:59:45","slug":"the-brain-chemistry-of-dopamine-its-rush-and-remorse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-brain-chemistry-of-dopamine-its-rush-and-remorse\/","title":{"rendered":"The Brain Chemistry of Dopamine, it\u2019s Rush and Remorse"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve lost track of how many ads I see a day. Even though I make a point to not click on them, and have shut off nearly all of my notifications, the habitual desire to pick up my phone and check in on all my texting and social platforms is strong, and so, even the recurring ads I have not clicked on, like the \u201cmiddle-age man chair workout\u201d, have got me thinking about it and blogging about it anyway. Last week, according to my Screen Time app, I clocked 34 hours and 21 minutes of screen time, including all the time spent on blogging, zoom calls, website visits, email, texting, and social sites. The algorithms are mining that data, vying for my attention, to provoke my desire and get me to buy, click, like, and pursue. So why does it work? This is where Daniel Lieberman and Michael Long\u2019s book, The Molecule of More<\/em> lets us in on the brain chemistry of dopamine.<\/p>\n

In short, their work serves as a layperson\u2019s guide to dopamine, the chemical released in our brain that drives our motivation and desire for what we do not yet have [1]. \u201cHaving things\u201d, Lieberman and Long explain, \u201cis uninteresting\u2026 [t]he dopamine circuits in the brain can be stimulated only by the possibility of whatever is shiny and new, never mind how perfect things are at the moment. The dopamine motto is “More” [2]. Or to pick up on a different metaphor they use, \u201cDopamine is the conductor, not the orchestra\u201d [3]. It\u2019s in love with the next, not the now, the pursuit of pleasure and novelty, not the possession of it, and is at the core of how we understand human desire.<\/span><\/p>\n

What I find particularly helpful is how they relate this to the more obvious human behaviours of love, sex, and addiction, but also to our politics. In understanding the battle between the now and the not-yet, the reality of the present and the idealism of the unknown future, dopaminergic levels in people help us understand a range of tendencies associated with different political ideologies. The authors assert that<\/p>\n

Progressives are idealists who use dopamine to imagine a world far better than the one we live in today. Progressivism is an arrow pointing forward\u2026 Conservatives distrust, the idealism of progressives, criticizing it as an impossible effort to build a perfect Utopia [4].<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One political example Lieberman and Long give us is climate change \u2014 which is perfect to be writing about this week as the UN Climate Conference is underway in Azerbaijan [5]. The kind of dopaminergic world we live in, with a never-ending pursuit of more, is the backdrop of the challenges humans are offered through climate action. Change agents seek to adjust human mindsets, habits and behaviours that impact the planet. The authors argue that for climate action to work,<\/p>\n

\n

Global economic growth will have to be slow down. People will need to use less heat, less air conditioning, less hot water. They will have to drive less, fly less, and consume less. In other words, behavior, driven by dopamine will need to be drastically suppressed, and the era of better, faster, cheaper, and more will have to end [6].<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Progressives and Conservatives speak as a counterpoint to each other\u2019s view, one in pursuit of the next, and the other pulling the conversation back to the now. What is true of a push-and-pull in society around large scale global issues like climate action, is also true within the individual mind. Lieberman exclaims, \u201cHappiness means finding a balance between dopamine rushes and the serenity of here and now chemicals\u201d [7]. I believe that Lieberman and Long lay out a strong case for how dopamine is the source of desires, creativity, and even political beliefs. This means it is connected to our impulses, and our grit.<\/p>\n

First, I see a link from the dopaminergic impulse to what Daniel Kahneman calls \u2018The Affect Heuristic\u2019. In his research that deals with fast thinking, he reveals that one way we quickly <\/span>draw conclusions is by \u201canswering an easier question\u201d [8] Kahneman\u2019s insight is that, \u201ct<\/span>he dominance of conclusions over arguments is most pronounced where emotions are involved\u201d [9]<\/span>. One can easily see that a part of the problem for the sort of impulse buying and subsequent remorse that comes from the dopaminergic impulse is the appeal to emotions, leading people to decide quickly on impulse, whatever the consequences.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dopamine also impacts grittiness. In Angela Duckworth\u2019s Grit<\/em>, she lays out that growth in one\u2019s grit come through the capacities of interest, practice, purpose and hope [10] All of these drive us to take on an imagined future-orientation. Lieberman and Long present this as dopamine\u2019s ability to not simply yield desire, but domination. The future-focus of dopamine does not just lightly roll out, but,<\/p>\n

\n

\u2026dopamine can do more than give us dominion over the world: it can create entirely new worlds, worlds that may be so astonishing, they could have been created only by a genius-or a madman [11]. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I wonder if we are more gritty about the things that give us dopamine responses, or more compelled to push through to ultimate goals because of dopamine\u2019s relentless pursuit of what we do not yet grasp.<\/p>\n

_______<\/p>\n

[1] Daniel Z Lieberman, Michael E Long, and Vince Hyman, <\/span>The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity – and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race<\/span><\/em>.<\/em> Dallas, Tex: BenBella, 2019, <\/span>30.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2] Lieberman and Long, The Molecule of More<\/em>, 16.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3] Lieberman and Long, The Molecule of More<\/em>, 199.<\/p>\n

[4] Lieberman and Long, The Molecule of More<\/em>,\u00a0148.<\/span><\/p>\n

[5] Website. Accessed November 20, 2024. https:\/\/cop29.az\/en\/home.<\/p>\n

[6] Lieberman and Long, The Molecule of More<\/em>, 204<\/span>.<\/p>\n

[7] \u201cThe Molecule of More Summary of Key Ideas and Review | Daniel Z. Lieberman and Michael E. Long.\u201d n.d. Accessed November 20, 2024. https:\/\/www.blinkist.com\/en\/books\/the-molecule-of-more-en.<\/p>\n

[8] <\/span>Daniel Kahneman, <\/span>Thinking, Fast and Slow,<\/span><\/em> Doubleday Canada, 2011, Chapter 9.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[9] Kahneman continues, \u201cThe psychologist Paul Slovic has proposed an affect heuristic in which people let their likes and dislikes determine their beliefs about the world.\u201c Kahneman, Thinking<\/em>, 103.<\/span><\/p>\n

[10] Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance,<\/em> First Scribner hardcover edition, New York: Scribner, 2016, Ch 6-9.<\/span><\/p>\n

[11] Lieberman and Long, The Molecule of More<\/em>, 106<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve lost track of how many ads I see a day. Even though I make a point to not click on them, and have shut off nearly all of my notifications, the habitual desire to pick up my phone and check in on all my texting and social platforms is strong, and so, even the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2969,2156],"class_list":["post-39563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp3","tag-lieberman","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39563"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39651,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39563\/revisions\/39651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}