Learn · Unit 5: Spot the tactics
Variable reward and dopamine
What dopamine and reinforcement research actually say; why rumination is not attraction; healthy anticipation versus manufactured instability.
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Lessons
- What dopamine doesExplain reward prediction error and the difference between wanting and liking, and why "dopamine equals pleasure" oversimplifies.
- Intermittent reward is not a dating methodExplain why variable-reward and "trauma bond" findings describe animal learning or abuse, not a way to create attraction.
- Rumination is not attractionExplain why being unable to stop thinking about someone is not evidence of positive feeling, and what the Zeigarnik effect does and does not show.
- Healthy anticipationContrast natural anticipation (enjoy, part, look forward, return) with manufactured instability (warmth, coldness, anxiety, warmth again).