Buying In - (Page 57) buying in 57 inventing patterns where none exist? Nobody, of course—even though we’re all susceptible to such thinking. And one of the reasons that we’re particularly susceptible to rationale thinking when we buy is something pretty obvious: Getting new stuff can feel pretty good. This is something that commercial persuasion professionals don’t talk about all that much when discussing how difficult their jobs have supposedly become. You would think that they are stuck addressing a public of devout monks who transcended material temptation long ago. Maybe you don’t need anybody to tell you that this is not so, but there’s plenty of research to back it up. Part of the pleasure of getting stuff is actually rooted in something not unlike the purple cow factor that Seth Godin talked about: Novelty that breaks a familiar pattern (like the same old herd of brown cows or the same old T-shirt designs at the mall) can suggest potential reward—inspiring anticipatory spikes of dopamine, a chemical in the brain that is often associated with sensations of pleasure. Gregory Berns, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University, has argued that the real key to dopamine release (which can also happen in reaction to unpleasant things, like a loud noise) isn’t in the reward—it’s in the potential. “I have come to understand novelty as the one thing that we all want,” he wrote in his book Satisfaction: The Science of Finding True Fulfillment. Any perceived source of surprising pleasure can activate the part of the brain that i equipped with dopamine receptors—making money, eating something delicious, or owning that incredibly beautiful pair of shoes. Berns and a colleague once conducted an experiment exploring how unexpected or unpredictable encounters with
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