Swayed by Expected Pleasure from Future Events
Monday, November 16th, 2009Why do we make the choices we do? Part of the answer has to do with dopamine or so argues an online article published in Trends in Cell Biology and reported on here.
“We found dopamine seems to have a role in determining the expected pleasure we will receive if we make a certain choice. We then use that information to make our choices.”
Dopamine is an import source of “mental energy” and as such this article supports the idea that we tend to act in ways to maximize our mental energy.
According to the article this effect lasted at least 24 hours in 80% of the subjects. A powerful effect indeed which explains why it can sway even the most important life decisions.
