Supernormal Stimuli

In the 1950s, two scientists - Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen, discovered a phenomenon that would later on be known as Supernormal Stimulus. While they conducted their experiments on animals, Supernormal Stimulus is something that might be increasingly relevant to humans in this age of excess and information overload.

What is Supernormal Stimulus?

To answer that question, we first have to understand normal stimulus.

According to Wikipedia:

Stimulation is the encouragement of development or the cause of activity generally. For example, "The press provides stimulation of political discourse." An interesting or fun activity can be described as "stimulating", regardless of its physical effects on senses. Stimulate means to act as a stimulus to; stimulus means something that rouses the recipient to activity; stimuli is the plural of stimulus.

So basically, stimulus is something that induces action in it's recipient. Stimulus is something that has shaped our lives. Stimulus creates what we refer to as 'instinct' . It's those parts of your behavior that you don't have to think about before acting. They are a result of thousands of years of trial and error that we as a species has gone through.

But there's something interesting about Stimulus

There is no 'upper limit' to the incoming stimulus for which a response is produced. The behaviors that we have developed as a response to this stimuli don't have any 'maximum input limit', neither do they have any 'sweet spot' ! The response is produced regardless of how abnormally high the incoming stimulus is.

And that's exactly what Lorenz and Tinbergen discovered. Wikipedia's description of what they found out is very interesting:

He experimented with dummy plaster eggs of various sizes and markings finding that most birds preferred ones with more exaggerated markings than their own, more saturated versions of their color, and a larger size than their own. Small songbirds which laid light blue grey-dappled eggs preferred to sit on a bright blue black polka-dotted dummy so large they slid off repeatedly. Territorial male stickleback fish would attack wooden floats with red undersides—attacking them more vigorously than invading male sticklebacks if the underside were redder.

This phenomenon was later called Supernormal Stimulus by other scientists. But while Supernormal Stimulus is something that was first found in animals, it's effects on humans are perhaps even more important.

Supernormal Stimulus in Humans

I have written about my procrastination problem before. I have increasingly wanted to make a schedule, to organise my life, and to stick to that schedule. In fact, that's one of my resolutions for next year! - to make and stick to a schedule. While I have already started to do this, I have noticed that it's very easy to be distracted. **Distraction is passive, while following the schedule requires actual effort. ** So when I read about Supernormal Stimulus, it all made sense.

We have an in-built instinct to prefer high-carb, high-fat food, because until a few hundred years ago, that kind of food wasn't really that common. We have an in-built instinct to look for social gratification, because in the past, that's how you moved up the hierarchy in your tribe. We have an in-built instinct to find more information,because in the past that was very important for survival. Those are the things that our dopamine system is programmed to respond to.

But today, most of those responses come because of stimuli that is way overblown compared to what it was in the past. Today, our dopamine system responds to fast food, it responds to likes and comments on social media. It responds to porn.

Dopamine is what causes us to want, to desire. In the past, our dopamine system responded to things that were mostly very good for us. But it hasn't caught up to modern life. Today, it responds to things that are sometimes very bad for us.

The internet itself is Supernormal Stimulus

When you think about human behavior from that perspective, you realise that the biggest supernormal stimulus is the internet, and more specifically - Social Media. Social media takes our brain on a roller coaster ride. It is an endless series of distractions that never allows us to focus on something.

Just look at Steemit itself - it has upvotes, it has comments, along with apps that send notifications to your phone whenever someone comments or upvotes your blog. And now even money is involved just for that extra kick!

So how do you stop yourself from being controlled by Supernormal Stimulus?

I think the first thing to remember is that just because something distracts you doesn't mean that it has to be removed from your life. If you removed the internet entirely, you would lose out on all the wonderful positives that it has. Even though these days we don't have to know our surroundings in order to survive, information in general is just as valuable today as it was 10000 years ago. And of course, the internet destroys every other information source.

The right thing to do, is to be aware. When you look at fast food, be aware of the fact that the reason you like fast food, is because you are instinctively drawn to food that has more sugar. When you watch Youtube Videos - be aware that the reason you like watching videos is because you have an in-built instinct to pay attention to moving objects, because in the past, a moving object often meant a predator. When you like a photo of a cute baby, be aware that the reason you are drawn to cute things is because of a biological urge to protect your children.

And once you are aware, you can override your instincts. Because even though we have the same instincts as other animals, we have something they don't - a conscious mind. A mind that can think, that can reason. A mind that if given enough will power, can override our basic, 'reptile' brain.

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Sources

• Header image from Pixabay
• https://www.sparringmind.com/supernormal-stimuli/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_stimulus