The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity―and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race

by Daniel Z. Lieberman

it also explains more nuanced things; for instance, why we remember some names but not others. There are all sorts of tricks one can use to make remembering easier, such as using the person’s name in conversation a few times. But even if the name seems committed to memory, it almost always fades quickly. Important names—those of people who can affect our lives—are easier. The name of the person who flirted with you at the party will stay in your memory longer than the name of the person who ignored you. So will the name of the man who told you to set up an appointment to see him because he wants to give you a job—and his name will stick with you even more reliably if you’re unemployed. Similarly, male rats remember the correct route through a maze more easily if there is a sexually receptive female at the other end.