How Incentive Salience Guides What We Reach for When Were Restless
Highlights
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The first drink delivers: shoulders drop, thoughts slow down, the world softens. But instead of letting that feeling settle, our brains are wired to keep going. Not because each drink feels better, but because our brain thinks it might.
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The brain remembers the early hit and keeps chasing it, even after the feeling is long gone. Neuroscientist Kent Berridge calls this phenomenon “incentive salience” — the brain’s habit of tagging certain cues, like the sight of a drink or the feel of a phone, as intensely desirable.
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