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

Elite societies of scientists are filled with artistic souls. Members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences are one and a half times more likely to have an artistic hobby compared to the rest of us. Members of the U.K. Royal Society are about twice as likely, and Nobel Prize winners are almost three times as likely. The better you are at managing the most complex, abstract ideas, the more likely you are to be an artist.

Albert Einstein once said, “My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings.” And “I love Humanity but I hate humans.”

His dopaminergic mind was both a blessing and a curse—the elevated levels of dopamine that allowed him to discover relativity was most likely the same dopamine that drove him from relationship to relationship, never allowing him to make the switch to H&N-focused, long-term companionate love.

We’ve already seen the impulsive pleasure-seeker who has difficulty maintaining long-term relationships and is vulnerable to addiction. We’ve also seen the detached planner who would rather stay late at the office than enjoy time with friends. Now we see a third possibility: the creative genius—whether painter, poet, or physicist—who has so much trouble with human relationships that he may appear to be slightly autistic.

They never relax, never stop to enjoy the good things they have. Instead, they’re obsessed with building a future that never arrives. Because when the future becomes the present, enjoying it requires activation of “touchy-feely” H&N chemicals, and that’s something highly dopaminergic people dislike and avoid. They serve the public well. But no matter how rich, famous, or successful they become, they’re almost never happy, certainly never satisfied. Evolutionary forces that promote the survival of the species produce these special people. Nature drives them to sacrifice their own happiness for the sake of bringing into the world new ideas and innovations that benefit the rest of us.

Progressives embrace change. They imagine a better future and in some cases even believe that the right combination of technology and public policy can eliminate fundamental problems of the human condition such as poverty, ignorance, and war. Progressives are idealists who use dopamine to imagine a world far better than the one we live in today. Progressivism is an arrow pointing forward. The word conservative, on the other hand, implies maintaining the best of what we have inherited from those who came before us. Conservatives are often suspicious of change. They don’t like experts who try to advance civilization by telling them what to do, even when it’s in their own best interest; for example, laws that require motorcyclists to wear helmets, or regulations that promote healthy eating. Conservatives distrust the idealism of progressives, criticizing it as an impossible effort to build a perfect utopia; an effort that is more likely to lead to totalitarianism in which the elite dominate all aspects of public and private life. In contrast to the arrow of progressivism, conservatism is better represented by a circle.

On average, liberals are more likely to be forward thinking, cerebral, inconstant, creative, intelligent, and dissatisfied. Conservatives, by contrast, are more likely to be comfortable with emotions, reliable, stable, conventional, less intellectual, and happy.

Overall, dopaminergic liberals are more likely to respond to messages that offer benefits, like opportunities for more resources, whereas H&N conservatives are more likely to respond to messages that offer security, like the ability to keep the things they currently have.

Liberals had a stronger response to the positive photos, conservatives to the negative ones. Because the researchers were measuring a biological reaction—perspiration—the response couldn’t have been intentionally controlled by the participants. Something more fundamental than rational choice was being measured.

Scientists can make people behave more like conservatives by giving them medication that boosts the H&N neurotransmitter serotonin. In one experiment, participants were given a single dose of the serotonergic drug citalopram, commonly used to treat depression.3 After taking the medication, they became less focused on the abstract concept of justice and more focused on protecting individuals from harm.

Most conservatives just want to be left alone. They want the freedom to make their own decisions based on their own values. Most liberals want to help people live better lives. Their goal is for everyone to be healthier, safer, and free from discrimination. But political leaders benefit from stirring up hostility between the two groups because it strengthens the allegiance of their followers. The important thing to remember is that liberals want to help people become better, conservatives want to let people be happy, and politicians want power.

people who carry the 7R allele are faster learners, especially when getting the answer right triggers a reward. In general, 7R carriers are more sensitive to rewards; they have stronger reactions to both wins and losses. Consequently, when they found themselves in an unfamiliar environment and needed to adapt to new routines to stay alive, the 7R carriers worked harder to figure things out because their experiences of success and failure were more intense.

Not everyone gets stressed by change, though. A new job, a new city, even a whole new career can be exciting and energizing for people with dopaminergic personalities. They thrive in unfamiliar environments.

People with dopaminergic personalities may do well when coping with novel situations, but they often have difficulty with relationships.

The United States and other immigrant societies may have the most dopaminergic genes, but a dopaminergic approach to life has become an integral part of modern culture, whether one’s genes support it or not. The world is now characterized by a never-ending flow of information, new products, advertising, and the perceived need for more.

When mastery is achieved, dopamine has reached the pinnacle of its aspiration—squeezing every last drop out of an available resource. This is what it’s all about. This is the moment to savor—now, in the present. Mastery is the point at which dopamine bows to H&N. Having done all it can do, dopamine pauses, and allows H&N to have its way with our happiness circuits. Even if it’s only for a short time, dopamine doesn’t fight the feeling of contentment. It approves. The best basking is basking in a job well done. Mastery also creates a feeling of what psychologists call an internal locus of control. This phrase refers to the tendency to view one’s choices and experiences as being under one’s own control as opposed to being determined by fate, luck, or other people. It’s a good feeling.

Paying attention to reality, to what you are actually doing in the moment, maximizes the flow of information into your brain. It maximizes dopamine’s ability to make new plans, because to build models that will accurately predict the future, dopamine needs data, and data flows from the senses. That’s dopamine and H&N working together. When something interesting activates the dopamine system, we snap to attention. If we are able to activate our H&N system by shifting our focus outward, the increased level of attention makes the sensory experience more intense.

Woodworking, knitting, painting, decorating, and sewing are old-fashioned activities that don’t get much attention in our modern world—which is exactly the point. These activities don’t require smartphone apps or high-speed internet. They require brains and hands working together to create something new. Our imagination conceives the project. We develop a plan to carry it out. Then our hands make it real.

Cooking, gardening, and playing sports are among many activities that combine intellectual stimulation with physical activity in a way that will satisfy us and make us whole. These activities can be pursued for a lifetime without becoming stale.

If we aim to be great, we will probably have to accept the fact that misery will be a part of it. It’s the goad of dissatisfaction that keeps us at our work while others are enjoying the company of family and friends. But those of us who prefer a life of happy fulfillment have a different task to accomplish: the task of finding harmony. We have to overcome the seduction of endless dopaminergic stimulation and turn our backs on our never-ending hunger for more. If we are able to intermingle dopamine with H&N, we can achieve that harmony. All dopamine all the time is not the path to the best possible future. It’s sensory reality and abstract thought working together that unlocks the brain’s full potential. Operating at its peak performance, it becomes capable of producing not only happiness and satisfaction, not only wealth and knowledge, but a rich mixture of sensory experience and wise understanding, a mixture that can set us down the path toward a more balanced way of being human.