This explains why habits are so powerful: They create neurological cravings. Most of the time, these cravings emerge so gradually that we’re not really aware they exist, so we’re often blind to their influence.
The area of research showing how our brains anticipate rewards is pretty important, because it explains a bunch of other things as well: Why do we get tired of rewards over time? Because as we start expecting them, they are less and less rewarding. Why is it so hard to ignore temptations once we’ve imagined a treat? Because our brain starts experiencing that reward even before we get it, and if it fails to materialize, we feel something akin to depression.
And, even more important: is there a kind of reward that seems to bypass this discounting process, that remains consistently rewarding, regardless of how much we expect it, or how many times it arrives? Yes: Emotional rewards seem more immune to discounting, perhaps because the trigger neurological activity in older parts of our brains.
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