← Giant Brain Candy
Giant Brain Candy: Wanting Isn’t Liking. Rats with almost all their brain dopamine depleted stopped seeking food, yet still showed normal signs of liking sugar on the tongue. Dopamine drives wanting more than enjoying. Source: Wanting versus liking.
Strong evidenceThe research
  1. Berridge, K. C., & Robinson, T. E. (1998). What is the role of dopamine in reward: Hedonic impact, reward learning, or incentive salience? Brain Research Reviews, 28(3), 309–369.

Journey 8 · Abundance

Wanting Isn’t Liking

Rats with almost all their brain dopamine depleted stopped seeking food, yet still showed normal signs of liking sugar on the tongue. Dopamine drives wanting more than enjoying.

Source: Wanting versus liking · Strong evidence

Share this card

XFacebookLinkedInPinterestWhatsAppThreadsEmail
Download the picture

Instagram or TikTok: download the picture and post it.

30 days of All-Access, free — every journey and every feature. No card.

Start free — 30 days of All-Access

More from Abundance

Giant Brain Candy: Sharper After the Harvest. In one much-debated study, sugar-cane farmers in India scored lower on reasoning tests before harvest, when money was tight, than after it. The researchers argued the situation, not the person, caused the drop. Source: Scarcity and the mind’s bandwidth.
Giant Brain Candy: The Two-Cookie Jar. People rated identical cookies as more desirable when they came from a jar holding two than from a jar holding ten. Scarcity alone made the same cookie seem more precious. Source: Scarcity and perceived value.
Giant Brain Candy: The Grades That Couldn’t Run Out. Even where top grades were unlimited, people who saw that many had already been given predicted a lower grade for the next presenter, as if good grades were running out. Source: Zero-sum bias.
All of Abundance’s Brain Candy, and every other journey’s →