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motivation
You want things that you do not enjoy.
Incentive salience distinguishes between the act of wanting a reward and the actual pleasure of consuming it.
Neuroscience indicates that the brain regions responsible for craving are distinct from those responsible for enjoyment. You can pursue a goal with immense desire, only to find the experience empty upon arrival. You are often driven by the system that predicts rewards rather than the one that experiences them.
You are designed for the chase, not the capture.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Berridge & Robinson, 1993, Brain Research Reviews
- What the check found
- The core of the Incentive Sensitization Theory is the dissociation between incentive salience ('wanting') and hedonic impact ('liking'). The citation and claim are accurate.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.