Comments on: How to get what you want – Understanding the biology of object lust

By: matt

matt — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:19:21 +0000

I just wanna say this is a great blog, I just discovered it and I’ve been reading all the posts to catch up, they’re all fascinating.

I love the advice you give, and the scientific basis for what you’re saying on this. Michael Shermer brought up something similar to this, certain brand logos cause us to react stronger than others. He gave the example of the Coco-Cola logo VS. the Pepsi logo and said the Coco-Cola logo caused a much stronger positive reaction. Now I’m going to take a step back and observe what I’m feeling when I’m wanting something, I might learn something about myself. It might help me save a little money too, sometimes you gotta feel like great marketing deserves a reward though.

BTW I’m with you on the Lotus, it’s an arousing car, the Saturn Sky does that too for me.

By: Trey Baird

Trey Baird — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:47:09 +0000

In my experience, I have met just as many women who are car lovers as men. And the women are WAYYYY into it.

I think that the advice about forming concrete goals is a good thing. It’s a lot easier to feel motivated when your motivation is something that you can actually fantasize about, whereas having a million dollars is too vage.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:02:25 +0000

@Jessica – Not sure there’s an easy way to break that first impression. It’s probably advantageous for our our brains to make snap decisions form a survival point of view – that’s a tiger, better run! Instantaneous attraction to something might work in a similar way, and naturally will be different for everyone in terms of what the attraction is.

@b That’s a tough one. It would be a mistake for me to generalize in this case, but one possible scenario would be that a mechanism similar to addiction is taking place. Compulsive gamblers and drug addicts can very easily rationalize their actions and continue with destructive behavior.

By: b

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 18:45:11 +0000

I’ve noticed that some of us have “buyer’s remorse” as a result of the reality of our prize not living up to the imagination of it; and this alone has the potential to lead a person to avoid choices with poor long term effects.

However, other people seem quite able to rationalize away any of the harsh realities of their decision; as they spiral deeper into debt (or deal with some other unwanted outcome), they seem unable to see any flaws in their decisions.

Any thoughts on the contrast between these different types of people? What could cause this discrepancy?

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:10:19 +0000

Love the license plate in the photo! That’s a great detail to add.

I was wondering – how do you account for that instantaneous attraction that you feel towards an object? For example, I might look at a piece of wall art in a thrift shop and emotionally feel a strong attraction towards it, even if my rational brain is doing what you suggest and trying to reprogram my response by thinking of all the reasons not to want it and the negatives it brings into my life. But is there any way to break that initial link so that I don’t have to spend all this time and energy talking myself out of certain purchases or desires?

I definitely love learning about the neuroscience perspective, thanks for the posts!