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> I haven't felt "positive reinforcement" or "dopamine hits" for quite some time on Facebook.

A 'feed' does not have to be overtly social to have addictive potential.

Suppose you visit a news site, not a social one, no likes, hearts or any feedback from other users.

The stories appear in a feed that you can refresh. 80% of the stories are of no interest to you, but 20% are great.

You can't predict when an interesting story will appear.

This configuration is enough to create "positive reinforcement" and the unpredictability can foster addictive behaviour.

When you encounter an article you like, it's a bit like sifting through sand and finding a gold nugget, you get a dopamine hit for that.

The fact that the nuggets only come up randomly and are hard to predict is called an "intermittent reinforcement schedule" and is known to elicit a high rate of response from the subject.




Related: Chimpanzees have higher dopamine release when the peanut dispenser only gives out peanuts "sometimes" instead of "every time" and can also explain (behaviorally) why some human become very addicted to the unpredictable nature of slots.


The term for that is variable-ratio positive reinforcement [2] which leads to habits that are resistant to "extinction" [3]. I just learned this the other day.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning_chamber#C....

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement#Simple_schedules

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_(psychology)


Nice. I will be sure to only upvote you sometimes so you stay on HN a long while.


Perfect explanation for my first Usenet experiences, then slashdot, the Reddit and HN.


Wasn’t there another one in there called “ko”-something or other during the slashdot days? It’s funny how in all my years of internet, I’ve probably been reading comments by people I first read when I was much younger.


>Wasn’t there another one in there called “ko”-something or other during the slashdot days?

Maybe you mean kuro5hin?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuro5hin




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