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Figure 3
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DOMINATION
forward-looking strategies, it allows us to gain control over the world
around us, and dominate our environment.
1
In addition, the dopamine control circuit is the source of imagina-
tion. It lets us peer into the future to see the consequences of decisions
we might make right now, and thus allows us to choose which future we
prefer. Finally, it gives us the ability to plan how to make that imaginary
future a reality. Like the desire circuit, which only cares about things we
do not have, control dopamine works in the unreal world of the possi-
ble. The two circuits begin in the same place, but the desire circuit ends
in a part of the brain that triggers excitement and enthusiasm, while
the control circuit goes to the frontal lobes, a part of the brain that spe-
cializes in logical thinking.
In this way, both circuits give us the capacity to consider “phan-
toms”—things that don’t physically exist. For desire dopamine, those
phantoms are things we wish to have but don’t have right now—things
we want in the future. For control dopamine, the phantoms are the
building blocks of imagination and creative thought: ideas, plans, theo-
ries, abstract concepts such as mathematics and beauty, and worlds yet
to be.
Control dopamine carries us beyond the primitive I want of desire
dopamine. It gives us tools to comprehend, analyze, and model the
world around us, so we can extrapolate possibilities, compare and con-
trast them, then craft ways to achieve our goals. It is an extended and
complex execution of the evolutionary imperative: to secure as many
resources as possible. In contrast, desire dopamine is the kid in the
back seat shouting for his parents to “Look! Look!” every time he sees
a McDonald’s, a toy store, or a puppy on the sidewalk. Control dopa-
mine is the parent at the wheel, hearing each request and considering
1 We’ll be using the term
environment
in a different way than it is commonly used.
When most people think of the environment, they think of the natural world, often
as something we need to protect, as in
environmentalism
. Neuroscientists use the
word to refer to everything in the external world that influences our behavior and
health, as opposed to influences that come from our genes. So the environment
includes not only mountains, trees, and grass, but also things such as people, rela-
tionships, food, and shelter.
64
THE MOLECULE OF MORE
whether it’s worth stopping for—and deciding what to do if he pulls
over. Control dopamine takes the excitement and motivation provided
by desire dopamine, evaluates options, selects tools, and plots a strategy
to get what it wants.
For example, a young man is planning to buy his first car. If all he
had was desire dopamine, he would buy the first one that caught his eye.
But since he also has control dopamine, he’s able to refine that impulse.
There are any number of reasons to prefer one car over another; let’s
say this young man is thrifty, and wants the best car he can afford at the
lowest price. Tapping into desire dopamine energy, he spends hours on
the internet, poring over car review sites and developing negotiation
strategies. He wants to know every detail he can so he can maximize
the value of his purchase. When he sits down with the car dealer, he is
so well prepared that nothing will take him by surprise. He feels good:
he has dominated the car-buying situation by mastering all available
information.
Consider a woman on her way to work. She drives to the train sta-
tion, taking a roundabout route that avoids the morning rush hour traf-
fic. When she gets to the station, she navigates to an unoccupied corner
of the parking garage that few people know about, and easily finds a
place to park. She waits on the platform at the precise spot where she
knows the doors to the commuter train will open, putting her at the
front of the line, ready to get one of the remaining empty seats for the
long ride to the city. She feels good: she has dominated her commute.
It’s fun figuring out things, and it’s fun carrying out the strategies
developed to “game” the intricacies of car buying and the daily trip to
work. Why? As always, the function of dopamine flows from the imper-
atives of evolution and survival. Dopamine encourages us to maximize
our resources by rewarding us when we do so—the act of doing some-
thing well, of making our future a better, safer place, gives us a little
dopamine “buzz.”
65
DOMINATION
TENACITY
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