This Is Your Brain on Money
2. The pattern you swear you see is probably an illusion.
"You associate a signal with a result -- 'when I listen to that guy on CNBC and I do what he tells me, I make money.' If that happens to you twice, and if you see him again on TV, dopamine is released, and you'll buy what he recommends because just seeing him will give you a good feeling. The intensity of expectation really gets you into trouble."
This phenomenon is especially potent if the following music is playing in the background and he's talking about how the stock market always creeps up.
That being said, when you read things posted on this site be aware that what you see is probably an illusion. That means you are actually reading about the illusion of the illusion of prosperity. By all means don't reread it! It will just be that much worse for you! You'll be reading about the illusion of the illusion of the illusion of prosperity!!
I think this dopamine effect is also present when shopping at amazon and reading customer reviews. Our monkey brains are hardwired to follow the crowd, and this dopamine mechanism is probably part of it.
ReplyDeleteI think that is a VERY good point.
ReplyDeleteYou might enjoy my vacuum cleaner rant.
http://illusionofprosperity.blogspot.com/2007/09/vacuum-of-hedonics-rant.html
I ended up buying a German made vacuum cleaner few Americans have ever even heard of. I can't say enough good things about it, but that's probably just the monkey part of my brain talking. Seriously, lol.