Everything About Dopamine | Mastering Dopamine
Haebom
Our brains are fundamentally wired to predict rewards. From the time of primitive humans, this developed for the deeply biological reason called 'wanting': craving calorie-rich sugars essential for survival. In contrast, the 'disgust' response kept us away from things like bitterness, helping humanity survive. (Keep poisonous plants away, keep fruit close.)
개인적으로 측좌핵, 글루타메이트 등의 언어는 너무 어렵다고 생각합니다.
The dopamine that once existed purely for 'survival' has become far too easy to get in today’s world. Just a bit of sugar—be it chocolate, tanghulu, or even a sip of glucose—satisfies us easily. And with survival itself not as threatened as in the past, the threshold for dopamine response has risen: now it takes stronger stimuli to trigger it. In a way, we've simply gotten used to surviving.
The essence of dopamine
Here's where dopamine gets interesting. Dopamine levels rise when we want something intensely, but that alone doesn’t directly create pleasure. In fact, it's usually the feeling of pleasure that generates dopamine. For example, someone who likes drinking may crave alcohol, but it’s unclear whether their body truly benefits from the substance called 'alcohol.' For most creatures, too much alcohol has negative effects. This shows how desire and enjoyment can be separated. Yet most people mistakenly believe they like alcohol itself, when it’s actually the good vibe and mood at a party or drinking meal that brings them pleasure.
To break it down even more simply, dopamine only drives the feeling of 'wanting.' Depending on the person, this usually gets stronger after 'liking' something. Dopamine encodes into the brain the craving for situations that generate pleasure. This is what many YouTubers and neuroscience experts have started calling 'smart use of dopamine' or 'dopamine hacking.'
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The difference between 'liking' and 'wanting' : Dopamine is essential for drawing the line between 'liking' and 'wanting.' 'Liking' refers to pure pleasure, whereas 'wanting' is the urge to seek something. Sometimes, we may want something desperately even if we don't really like it, and that's due to complex emotional responses involving dopamine.
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Habit formation : Dopamine is also key to forming habits. When an activity repeatedly brings positive rewards, dopamine motivates us to do it more often. That’s how we form habits.
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Expected and unexpected rewards : Dopamine also influences how we react to unexpected rewards. When the outcome exceeds our expectations, dopamine surges and we feel greater pleasure. Conversely, if results fall short, dopamine release drops but doesn’t stop—giving us motivation to try again, even after failure.
Applying dopamine principles to real services
By now, I think you have a clear sense of how dopamine works. Personally, the game industry and social media are the best at leveraging this. Careful game design and recommendation algorithms make it possible. Is that example too obvious? Here’s another: I think Time & Co.’s services like LongBlack and Ep9 have done a fantastic job with it.
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By putting a time limit on each piece of content, it creates a sense of loss for users who skip watching.
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By featuring only one piece of content per day, it allows users to focus better,
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and shows that the content offers unexpected fun and fresh insights.
This is a rare example of a cleanly modeled, successful example of unexpected rewards , habit formation , and even turning liking into wanting . (Please pay close attention to Ep9!) The dopamine reward system operates in the following order.
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Positive experiences: When we enjoy delicious food like chocolate, exercise, or spend time with loved ones, our brains register these as positive experiences.
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Reward system activation: Positive experiences activate our brain's reward system. This system involves several regions, especially those in the central nervous system responsible for pleasure and desire.
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Dopamine release: When the reward system is activated, the chemical dopamine is released. Dopamine sends signals to other brain cells, helping to reinforce positive feelings.
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Desire and motivation: Dopamine goes beyond just providing pleasure. It’s crucial for the desire and drive behind our actions. For example, if an activity triggers dopamine, we feel a strong urge to do it again.
The real essence is unexpected delight
마케팅 등에서 흔히 사용되는 AIDA, ARRR 같은 모델이 전형적인 도파민 자극 모델 입니다. (이미지: 허브스팟)
When applying this knowledge in planning, it’s important to anticipate what users expect next and offer reward experiences that go beyond those expectations. For example, social media is constantly serving up surprise rewards, so users keep checking their feeds. Not knowing what fun thing will come next makes users keep trying, and when they do find something enjoyable, dopamine is released—turning it into a habit.
This principle has long been used in game design—the primary goal is to keep overturning users’ expectations. For example, once you know the secret to winning a game, that game just isn’t fun anymore. It’s also dopamine that makes us bored with things we used to enjoy. When your brain gets exactly the reward it expected, it stops producing extra dopamine, because further learning, exploration, or automation is no longer needed.
A lot of people get this part wrong. The reward itself isn’t the point. It’s the unexpected reward that’s key.
Desire for a product is born when learning is incomplete. If a lab rat gets sweet juice every time it presses a lever, it quickly learns the connection. But it doesn’t always need sweet juice. However, if the sweet juice comes randomly, learning never finishes. The rat keeps trying to figure out what triggers the sweet juice by pressing the lever over and over.
AI too?
Personally, I think the reason things like ChatGPT and LLMs have become so popular is because of this principle. In the past, methods like AlphaGo or classic deep learning looked like 'cheat codes' or 'sure wins' to users. But with newer generative models, you can never quite predict the results. That’s an unexpected reward, and because a little user effort (prompting) leads to clear changes, their usefulness and satisfaction feel way higher than with other tech. And since every result is different, from the user’s perspective, the learning can go on forever—never fully finished. (Deep learning itself has a high barrier and unpredictable results.)
Making the most of dopamine principles
해외에서 널리 퍼져있는 짤. 쉽게 얻을 수 있는 도파민은 오히려 보상 체계를 망가뜨린다.
Dopamine-producing neurons are broadly connected throughout the brain’s networks. In most cases, dopamine sparks downstream activities like these: It’s not just about pleasure—scientifically speaking, dopamine matters for learning, motivation, attention, and many other cognitive and behavioral processes.
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The charm of reward: Dopamine helps learning by aligning what we expect with the actual reward. That’s why music that sounded strange at first might sound better the next time—you’re getting better at predicting what's rewarding.
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Automating decisions: Decision-making is energy-intensive, so it’s logical that rewarded behaviors become habitual and automatic over time. Neuroplasticity ensures that rewarded actions keep getting more and more efficient.
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Seeking even more rewards: When you get a reward that’s better than expected, it shows there’s still more to learn—so animals aren’t just satisfied with the reward itself; they want to understand how it was earned. Information about rewards can be just as valuable as the reward itself, so it makes sense to safely explore environments that offer occasional rewards. For instance, because social media always serves up unpredictable bonuses, users compulsively check their feeds.
With that in mind, it’s crucial in product design to anticipate what users will expect, and create memorable experiences that outdo those expectations. (Everyone tends to fixate on giving rewards, but the key is to give something that goes beyond what’s expected—it doesn’t have to be 'better,' just something novel or different can work!)
This fits with the idea that dopamine triggers adaptive behaviors like learning, exploring, and forming habits. It’s why we get bored with stuff that used to thrill us—when we get exactly what we expect as a reward, the brain doesn't pump out more dopamine, since there’s nothing new to learn or explore.
Getting played knowingly, and getting played unknowingly
Our urge to act is shaped both by the desire to get rewards efficiently and the urge to learn how rewards are created. Think of dopamine as a signal for the 'worth' of working on something. When your brain gives off more dopamine, it’s only logical to put in more effort, because the reward or the knowledge you gain will make it worthwhile. (Books like 'Hooked' and 'Dopamination' cover this in detail.)
Put simply, the easiest way not to be ruled by dopamine is to just get used to something. Make it boring. The moment you stop being interested in the so-called winning strategy or cheat code, it stops producing dopamine, and you stop repeating it.
To sum it up in the simplest way: the heart of any dopamine-driven plan or strategy is almost catching, never quite catching. And if the user does catch something, immediately show them something new to chase so that state of 'almost got it' is maintained. That’s how your net ends up full of fish.
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I post articles related to IT 💻, economy 💰, and humanities 🎭.
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haebom@kakao.com
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I post articles related to IT 💻, economy 💰, and humanities 🎭.
If you are curious about my thoughts, perspectives or interests, please subscribe.
haebom@kakao.com