The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It

DOPAMINE ON DEMAND
When we add the instant gratification of modern technology to this primitive motivation system, we
end up with dopamine-delivery devices that are damn near impossible to put down. Some of us are
old enough to remember the thrill of pressing a button on an answering machine to find out if we had
any new messages. Then there was the anticipation of connecting by modem to AOL, hoping the
computer would tell us, “You’ve got mail!” Well, now we have Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, and text
messaging—the modern equivalent of psychiatrist Robert Heath’s self-stimulating devices.
Because we know there’s a chance we’ll have a new message, or because the very next You Tube
video may be the one that makes us laugh, we keep hitting refresh, clicking the next link, and checking
our devices compulsively. It’s as if our cell phones, BlackBerrys, and laptops have a direct line into
our brains, giving us constant jolts of dopamine. There are few things ever dreamed of, smoked, or
injected that have as addictive an effect on our brains as technology. This is how our devices keep us
captive and always coming back for more. The definitive Internet act of our times is a perfect
metaphor for the promise of reward: We search. And we search. And we search some more, clicking
that mouse like—well, like a rat in a cage seeking another “hit,” looking for the elusive reward that
will finally feel like enough.
Cell phones, the Internet, and other social media may have accidentally exploited our reward
system, but computer and video game designers intentionally manipulate the reward system to keep
players hooked. The promise that the next level or big win could happen at any time is what makes a
game compelling. It’s also what makes a game hard to quit. One study found that playing a video game
led to dopamine increases equivalent to amphetamine use—and it’s this dopamine rush that makes
both so addictive. The unpredictability of scoring or advancing keeps your dopamine neurons firing,
and you glued to your seat. Depending on your point of view, this makes for either incredible
entertainment or unethical exploitation of gamers. While not everyone who picks up an Xbox
controller gets hooked, for those who are vulnerable, games can be as addictive as any drug. In 2005,
a twenty-eight-year-old Korean boiler repairman, Lee Seung Seop, died from cardiovascular failure
after playing the game Star-Craft for fifty hours straight. He had refused to eat or sleep, wanting only
to continue. It’s impossible to hear this story and not think about Olds and Milner’s rats pressing the
lever to exhaustion.