Our brains basically work in a way that anticipates rewards. This has evolved since the days of primitive humans for the very biological reason of wanting to consume sugars rich in calories that have survival value for survival. On the other hand, the 'disgust' response has helped humans survive by keeping us away from bad things like bitter tastes. (Poisonous plants far away, fruits close.)
Personally, I think the language of nucleus accumbens, glutamate, etc. is too difficult.
Dopamine, which existed because of this "survival," has become too easy to obtain in modern society. Something of sugar can be easily satisfied by consuming chocolate, sweet potatoes, or even glucose. Since the survival of living things is actually not as threatened as it used to be, dopamine has actually raised its threshold to respond to stronger stimuli. It has become accustomed to survival.
The core of dopamine
Here's where the funny thing about dopamine comes into play. Dopamine increases when we want something strongly, but it doesn't necessarily produce pleasure directly. Rather, pleasurable feelings cause dopamine to be produced. For example, people who like alcohol want alcohol, but we don't actually know if the ingredient "alcohol" is biologically acceptable. For most living beings, alcohol has a negative effect on them beyond a certain amount. This shows that desire and pleasure can be separated. However, most people mistakenly think that they like alcohol because of the pleasurable feelings and moods that alcohol and drinking parties give them.
To put it more simply, dopamine only promotes the occurrence of 'wanting'. This is usually reinforced after 'liking' depending on the person. Dopamine encodes the desire for situations that generate this pleasure in the brain. This is the area that many YouTubers and neuroscientists have recently called clever use of dopamine or dopamine hacking.
The difference between 'liking' and 'wanting' : Dopamine is important in making the distinction between 'liking' and 'wanting'. 'Liking' means pure pleasure, whereas 'wanting' is the desire to pursue something. Sometimes we want something intensely even though we don't really like it, and this is because of the complex emotional response that dopamine is involved in.
Habit formation : Dopamine is also important in habit formation. When an activity repeatedly provides positive rewards, dopamine motivates us to perform that activity more often. This is how we form certain habits.
Expected and Unexpected Rewards : Dopamine is also associated with our response to unexpected rewards. When we get a better outcome than we expected, dopamine release increases, which gives us more pleasure. Conversely, unpredictable outcomes decrease dopamine release, but do not completely stop it. This provides us with the motivation to try again, even if we fail.
Applying dopamine to real services
I think you now have a good understanding of what dopamine does. Personally, the best places to do this are the gaming and social media industries. The meticulousness of game designers and the recommendation algorithms make this possible. Is this too obvious an example? Let me give you another example. I personally think Time & Co., like LongBlack and Ep9, did this fantastically well.
By setting a time limit for each content, we create a situation where users lose out if they don't watch it.
By covering only one piece of content per day, we create a state where users can focus,
It shows that the content has unexpected fun and insights.
This is a rare case where unexpected rewards , habit formation , and changing liking into wanting have been neatly modeled successfully. (Please pay close attention to Ep9!) The dopamine reward system operates in the following order.
1.
Positive experiences: When we engage in enjoyable activities, such as eating something delicious like chocolate, exercising, or spending time with a loved one, our brain perceives this as a positive experience.
2.
Activation of the reward system: Positive experiences activate our reward system, which primarily affects several areas of the brain, particularly the areas responsible for pleasure and desire, located in the central nervous system.
3.
Dopamine release: When the reward system is activated, a chemical called dopamine is released. Dopamine helps reinforce positive emotions by transmitting signals to other brain cells.
4.
Desire and motivation: Dopamine does more than just make us feel pleasure. It plays a key role in the desire and motivation for our actions. For example, if an activity triggers the release of dopamine, we feel a strong desire to repeat that activity.
The essence is unexpected joy
Models such as AIDA and ARRR, which are commonly used in marketing, are typical dopamine stimulation models. (Image: HubSpot)
When applying this knowledge to design, it is important to anticipate what users will expect in the next moment and lead them to rewarding experiences that exceed their expectations. For example, social media is constantly providing unexpected rewards, so users are constantly checking their social media feeds. This is because users do not know what fun things will come next, so they keep trying, and when they see something fun, dopamine is released, which becomes a habit.
This principle has actually been used a lot in game design. The main goal is to continually subvert the user's expectations. For example, once you know the secret to winning a game, it is no longer fun. The reason we get bored with things we once enjoyed is also due to the action of dopamine. When the expected reward is exactly what is received, the brain does not increase dopamine production. This is because there is no need for further learning, exploration, or automaticity.
This is where many people get it wrong. The reward is not the key. The unexpected reward is the key.
Desire for a product is created when learning is incomplete. If a lab rat is given sweet juice every time it presses a lever, it quickly learns that pressing the lever will lead to sweet juice. However, it does not always need sweet juice. However, if sweet juice is given randomly, learning is nevercomplete. The rat continues to try to figure out which element predicts sweet juice by pressing the lever.
Artificial intelligence too?
Personally, I think that the reason AI has attracted so much attention, such as chatGPT and LLM, is because of this principle. The methods proposed by AlphaGo and existing deep learning may have seemed like "sure-win strategies" or "cheat keys" to users. However, the recently introduced generative models are fundamentally difficult to predict. I think this is because they are unexpected rewards and bring about clear changes through a little effort (prompting) from the user, so the utility and pleasure are far superior to other technologies. And since the results are different every time, from the user's perspective, learning is never completed. (Deep learning itself has a high hurdle rate and it is not easy to predict the results.)
How to properly use the principle of dopamine
A meme that is widely spread overseas. Dopamine, which is easily obtained, actually destroys the reward system.
Dopamine-producing neurons are widely connected to various networks in the brain. In most cases, dopamine triggers the following downstream activities: Scientifically, dopamine is not just associated with pleasure, but also plays a role in a variety of cognitive and behavioral processes, including learning, motivation, and attention.
The allure of reward: Dopamine helps learning by adjusting the expected reward to be closer to the actual reward. This is why music that sounds strange at first sounds a little better the next time. Our brains are getting better at predicting what is rewarding.
Automaticity of Decisions: Since decision making is an energy-intensive task, it makes sense that rewarded behaviors become habitual and automatic over time. Neuroplasticity ensures that rewarded behaviors become increasingly efficient.
Search for more rewards: A better-than-expected reward suggests a gap in knowledge, so animals are not simply satisfied with the reward, but want to know how the reward is generated in the environment. Since information about the reward is as valuable as the reward itself, it makes sense to (safely) search for an environment that intermittently provides rewards. For example, social media constantly provides unpredictable rewards, which makes users constantly check their social media feeds.
Based on this knowledge, when designing a product, it is important to anticipate what the user will expect next and create a trace of a rewarding experience that exceeds that expectation. (Everyone focuses on giving rewards, but rewards are not the key; you should give something that exceeds expectations or expectations. → This does not necessarily mean a better reward. Something different is also okay.)
This is consistent with the fact that dopamine triggers adaptive behaviors of learning, exploration, and automaticity. It is also due to dopamine that we become bored with things that we once enjoyed. When we receive exactly the reward we expected, the brain does not increase dopamine production because there is no need for further learning, exploration, or automaticity.
Knowing and suffering and not knowing and suffering
Our desire to do something is generated by both the desire to obtain rewards efficiently and the desire to learn how rewards are generated. Dopamine can be thought of as a kind of signal indicating task value. That is, the more dopamine is produced, the more rational it is to exert effort in the behavior. The reward will be worth it, or the information gained will compensate for the effort. (This is actually covered in various books such as Hooked, Dopamination, etc.)
In other words, the easiest way to avoid being controlled by dopamine is to get used to it. In other words, to make it uninteresting. The moment you lose interest in the aforementioned surefire method or cheat key, that behavior stops producing dopamine, and humans stop repeating that behavior.
Lastly, to put it really simply, the core of dopamine planning or strategy is " catch it but not catch it ." And if you catch it, immediately suggest what to catch next, and maintain that state of catch but not catch, your net will already be full of fish.
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