Dopamine is triggered when your brain expects to receive a reward, and dopamine motivates you to keep going until that expectation is met.
If you want to accomplish something or change something (including your behavior), incorporating a reward or a series of rewards can provide positive reinforcement by activating dopamine.
In order for a reward to function effectively as a positive reinforcement, you need to crave it. So the reward needs to be something you really want (desire), and it needs to be identified ahead of time.
Intermittent Reinforcement
Continuous reinforcement means your brain receives the same—or the expected—reward each time you perform an activity.
Intermittent reinforcement means that instead of your brain always getting the reward it anticipated, it might get a greater reward, a lesser reward, or no reward at all.
Novelty amps up dopamine, so intermittent rewards can increase your and your brain’s interest. When the outcome (getting the anticipated reward) is not guaranteed, your brain wants to keep trying. Intermittent reinforcement is what gets people hooked on playing video games, gambling, or checking their smartphones all day long.
Since intermittent reinforcement is more effective than continuous reinforcement, it’s especially useful when the task you need to complete is difficult or boring or when your commitment or attention are flagging.
Although it’s easier to administer intermittent rewards to someone else, it’s not impossible to administer them to yourself. In order for this to work, however, you need to take it seriously and avoid “cheating.”
Here’s one way to do it.
Give yourself a task to complete and list three possible rewards: one that is appropriate (the expected reward), one that is of lesser value, and one that is of greater value. (You can use points, dollars, things, or activities.)
If you don’t complete the task, you don’t get a reward.
If you complete the task, you get to roll the dice to find out your reward.
- An even number gets you the appropriate reward
- An odd number gets you the reward of lesser value
- Doubles (same number on both dice) gets you the reward of higher value
Upping the Stakes
The Dice Man, a cult classic written by Luke Rhinehart that was published in 1971 and banned in a few countries for its “subversive nature,” takes rolling the dice to an entirely new level. The protagonist is a psychiatrist disillusioned with life in general, as well as the fact that he has a self he feels compelled to be true to. So he decides to liberate himself from his self by acting (behaving/
choosing) randomly, rather than by remaining true to character. Fortuitously, he finds a single die on the floor at that very moment and resolves to henceforth let the die determine his course of action.
I don’t advocate this approach to life for some obvious reasons, including the fact that it would quickly deplete your System 2 attention. But if you aren’t sure what you want or you’re feeling generally apathetic, experimenting with the technique (which I did a few years ago just for the heck of it) might help you discover what you and your brain do find rewarding.
Here’s how you can do it.
When you have a choice to make, write down six possibilities or options and number them. Just trying to come up with that many possibilities can be a challenge, but it can also stretch your mind, so don’t stop short. When you’re done, roll a die and see which option you get.
Of course no one will force you to abide by the roll of the die. But notice your reaction to the idea of pursuing that particular course of action. Are you excited or eager? Does it trigger a motivating surge of dopamine? Or do you feel disappointed, disinterested, or resistant?
Sometimes playing games with yourself is a good way to get information you can’t access directly. Rolling the dice can provide you with some clues about what you really want.