PUTTING THE DOPE IN DOPAMINE
IN ORDER TO MAXIMIZE the amount of time we spend on our devices, designers manipulate our brain chemistry in ways that are known to trigger addictive behaviours.
Most of these techniques involve a brain chemical called dopamine. Dopamine has many roles, but for our purposes, the most important thing to know is that, by activating pleasure-related receptors in our brains, it teaches us to associate certain behaviours with rewards (think of a rat that gets a pellet every time it presses a lever). Dopamine makes us feel excited—and we like feeling excited. Any experience that triggers the release of dopamine is, therefore, something that we’ll want to experience again.
But that’s not all. If an experience consistently triggers the release of dopamine, our brains remember the cause and effect. Eventually, they will release dopamine any time they’re reminded of the experience. They’ll release it, in other words, in anticipation.
The ability to anticipate satisfaction is essential for our survival—it motivates us to seek out food, for example. But it also causes cravings and, in more extreme cases, addictions. If your brain learns that checking your phone usually results in a reward, it won’t take long before your brain releases dopamine any time it’s reminded of your phone. You’ll start to crave it. (Ever notice how seeing someone else check their phone can make you want to check yours?)
Interestingly, these “rewards” can be positive or negative. Sometimes we reach for our phones out of hope/anticipation that there’ll be something good waiting for us. But just as often, we reach for our phones to help us avoid something unpleasant, such as boredom or anxiety. It doesn’t matter. Once our brains have learned to associate checking our phones with getting a reward, we are going to really, really, really want to check our phones. We become like the lab rats, constantly pressing the lever to get food.
Thankfully, food cravings naturally subside when our stomachs feel full (otherwise our stomachs might explode). But phones and most apps are deliberately designed without “stopping cues” to alert us when we’ve had enough—which is why it’s so easy to accidentally binge ( a short period of time when you do too much of something). On a certain level, we know that what we’re doing is making us feel gross (very disgusting). But instead of stopping, our brains decide the solution is to seek out more dopamine. We check our phones again. And again. And again.
When this happens, we tend to blame our binges on a lack of willpower—another way of saying that we blame ourselves. What we don’t realize is that technology designers deliberately manipulate our dopamine responses to make it extremely difficult for us to stop using their products. Known as “brain hacking,” this is essentially behavioural design based on brain chemistry—and once you know how to recognize its signs, you’ll see it all over your phone.
In 2017, 60 Minutes aired a fascinating interview between Anderson Cooper and Ramsay Brown, founder of a start-up called Dopamine Labs that creates brain -hacking code for app companies. The goal is to keep people glued to an app by figuring out exactly when the app should do something to “make you feel a little extra awesome,” explained Brown, who has a background in neuroscience (and who, for the record, comes across as a thoughtful and UN-evil kind of guy).
Brown offered the example of Instagram, which he says has created code that deliberately holds back on showing users new “likes” so that it can deliver a bunch of them in a sudden rush at the most effective moment possible—meaning the moment at which seeing new likes will discourage you from closing the app. And when he says “you,” Brown means you. As he explained to Anderson Cooper, “There’s an algorithm somewhere that predicted, hey, for this user right now who is experimental subject 79B3 in experiment 231, we think we can see an improvement in his behaviour if you give it to him in this burst instead of that burst…. You’re part of a set of controlled experiments that are happening in real-time across you and millions of other people.”
Interestingly, Brown—who is one of the few technology insiders who agreed to speak with 60 Minutes on the record—also created an app called Space that was meant to encourage people to spend less time on their phones by creating a twelve-second delay before social media apps would open. Brown called this a “moment of Zen”; the point was to give people a chance to change their minds.
But the App Store initially refused to sell Space. “They rejected it from the App Store because they told us an app that would encourage people to use other apps or their iPhone less was unacceptable for distribution in the App Store,” said Brown. “They did not want us to give out this thing that was gonna make people less stuck on their phones.”
Note:- 60 Minutes later reported that “a few days after our story first aired, Apple called to tell us it had a change of heart and made ‘Space’ available in its App Store.”
Thanks for reading, As Always, ANKURJIT KALITA
Most of these techniques involve a brain chemical called dopamine. Dopamine has many roles, but for our purposes, the most important thing to know is that, by activating pleasure-related receptors in our brains, it teaches us to associate certain behaviours with rewards (think of a rat that gets a pellet every time it presses a lever). Dopamine makes us feel excited—and we like feeling excited. Any experience that triggers the release of dopamine is, therefore, something that we’ll want to experience again.
But that’s not all. If an experience consistently triggers the release of dopamine, our brains remember the cause and effect. Eventually, they will release dopamine any time they’re reminded of the experience. They’ll release it, in other words, in anticipation.
Interestingly, these “rewards” can be positive or negative. Sometimes we reach for our phones out of hope/anticipation that there’ll be something good waiting for us. But just as often, we reach for our phones to help us avoid something unpleasant, such as boredom or anxiety. It doesn’t matter. Once our brains have learned to associate checking our phones with getting a reward, we are going to really, really, really want to check our phones. We become like the lab rats, constantly pressing the lever to get food.
When this happens, we tend to blame our binges on a lack of willpower—another way of saying that we blame ourselves. What we don’t realize is that technology designers deliberately manipulate our dopamine responses to make it extremely difficult for us to stop using their products. Known as “brain hacking,” this is essentially behavioural design based on brain chemistry—and once you know how to recognize its signs, you’ll see it all over your phone.
In 2017, 60 Minutes aired a fascinating interview between Anderson Cooper and Ramsay Brown, founder of a start-up called Dopamine Labs that creates brain -hacking code for app companies. The goal is to keep people glued to an app by figuring out exactly when the app should do something to “make you feel a little extra awesome,” explained Brown, who has a background in neuroscience (and who, for the record, comes across as a thoughtful and UN-evil kind of guy).
Brown offered the example of Instagram, which he says has created code that deliberately holds back on showing users new “likes” so that it can deliver a bunch of them in a sudden rush at the most effective moment possible—meaning the moment at which seeing new likes will discourage you from closing the app. And when he says “you,” Brown means you. As he explained to Anderson Cooper, “There’s an algorithm somewhere that predicted, hey, for this user right now who is experimental subject 79B3 in experiment 231, we think we can see an improvement in his behaviour if you give it to him in this burst instead of that burst…. You’re part of a set of controlled experiments that are happening in real-time across you and millions of other people.”
Interestingly, Brown—who is one of the few technology insiders who agreed to speak with 60 Minutes on the record—also created an app called Space that was meant to encourage people to spend less time on their phones by creating a twelve-second delay before social media apps would open. Brown called this a “moment of Zen”; the point was to give people a chance to change their minds.
But the App Store initially refused to sell Space. “They rejected it from the App Store because they told us an app that would encourage people to use other apps or their iPhone less was unacceptable for distribution in the App Store,” said Brown. “They did not want us to give out this thing that was gonna make people less stuck on their phones.”
Note:- 60 Minutes later reported that “a few days after our story first aired, Apple called to tell us it had a change of heart and made ‘Space’ available in its App Store.”
Thanks for reading, As Always, ANKURJIT KALITA
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