I was recently listening to a Podcast from a well known Professor of Psychology in Yale University Laurie R. Santos when it sparked my interest in Neuroscience. This motivated me to give my Insights from the perspective of a Student from an Allied Health Profession while also help empower fellow Filipinos (especially with the same age group as me) with insights on common struggles on life.
You can find the Podcast Episode HERE
Normally, we think about Liking and Wanting in the same degree. The interchangeable use of “liking” and “wanting” when it comes to the perception of “Reward” is used extensively, which is far from what the common Phenomena is manifesting, because traditionally, the measurement of reward was based on an inference where the incentive stimulus is liked, it is assumed based on behavioral evidence that the stimulus is always wanted. To put it bluntly, it means we cannot distinguish liking and wanting because it is conventionally viewed in the same perspective and measured in the same variable to each other.
According to another Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Kent Berridge on his 61 page Research Article, Reward is often conceptualized as if it were a single psychological process or a unitary feature of a reinforcing stimulus. In simple terms, it basically means “Reward” is perceived as something like a singular Physical Stuff that motivates someone to do things.
But he argues that reward is not a unitary process, but instead a constellation of multiple processes many of which can be separately identified in behavior. Meaning there are multiple biochemical factors that affect the behavior and feelings of a person, which subsequently means that wanting is different from liking and the assumption of we want something because we like it isn’t as true as we thought.
Psychiatrist Donald Klein sums it up pretty clearly. Wanting and Liking is like “pleasures of the hunt” and “pleasures of the feast”. Pleasures of the hunt are the thrill of the chase: excitement, desire, stimulation, intent, sense of power, and confidence in being able to get what you want, while pleasures of the feast are those of satisfaction, comfort, relaxation, attainment, and sedation.
There is a stimulus that produce a memory comparison in which the brain which distinguishes what a Person Likes and a Person Wants by potentiating Dopamine projections to the Striatum, generating the “wanting” feeling; however Dopamine projections to the Striatum does not illicit to the satisfaction of liking and to associative-learning of rewards.
Incentive Salience is something like a Cognitive process that instigate a “desire” or “want”, which is important in distinguishing what we want to what we like. Needless to say, Wanting regions of the brain are about craving for something, which drives us to take action and pursue things that feels good. The framework below visualizes the concept of Incentive Salience and Hedonism as Motivation for Wanting and Liking.
Evolutionally, these signals had a purpose. Liking is an Evolutionary Luxury which helped in establishing pleasure senses, while also doing away with important survival stuff. But explaining how it works will take forever to do so.
I would provide resources for relevant document here
Dopamine Function in Reward by K.Berridge and T. Robinson: Here
Incentive Salience Model of Reward by E. Patrono et.al: Here
Now that I have introduced you to the Fundamentals of Reward, how can you take advantage of it? The next part will cover the following:
Why Can’t we utilize the concept of “Reward” effectively
What can you do?
Why Can’t we utilize the concept of “Reward” effectively
A lot of people especially in Cultures heavily influenced by Religion think that our Happiness and Satisfaction is something that is affected by perspectives and outlooks in life. Not knowing and having a grasp of the Science behind the Mechanisms and Phenomena on what happens inside a brain can lead to bad advice especially when somebody suffers from mental illness.
This happens the same way in the Concepts of Mental Health as well, which undermines the underlying issues of why the we feel things the way it is; partly because of the fear surrounding the unknown concepts which deals more harm than good in the long run.
What can you do?
You cant always want what you like, and Mindfulness is the key in managing how we feel what we want and what we like. Though it wouldn’t help you everytime, it definitely help more times than it doesn’t. Savoring the moment also helps in highlighting the moments of being mindful, to help you in maintaining focus and be mindful on what happens.
To Conclude
The Perspective of Liking and Wanting is used interchangeably in the past, but the current evidences shows otherwise.
Wanting is different to Liking.
Mindfulness is important in order to manage and distinguish what we want and what we like
Anyways, that is all for now. I hope I have imparted some novel knowledge to you and see you on the next Insight!
Thumbnail Photo by Morgan Housel on Unsplash