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Rewarding Experiences Are More Rewarding to Extraverts

July 6, 2016 by Joycelyn Campbell Leave a Comment

Introverts and extraverts alike have a reward system in the brain that has the same purpose and that functions the same way. However, all brains don’t process rewards identically. Whether intrinsic or extrinsic, rewards are an important element of behavior change, which is why I became interested in the subject after noticing that some of my clients have a harder time than others in getting the hang of using rewards.

It’s commonly believed that the primary difference between extraverts and introverts is each group’s desire for alone time. Introverts want and need more of it, and extraverts want and need less of it. Although that’s not necessarily inaccurate, it’s wrong to assume that extraverts always prefer social interaction over alone time. And even if they do, that isn’t what differentiates one group from the other.

Research suggests that what distinguishes extraverts from introverts is sensitivity to rewards in the environment. A preference for social interaction—independent of the reward/enjoyment of the interaction—is not what’s at the core of extraversion. According to Colin G. DeYoung, Ph.D. (researcher in the field of personality neuroscience):

People who score low in Extraversion are not necessarily turned inward; rather, they are less engaged, motivated, and energized by the possibilities for reward that surround them. Hence, they talk less, are less driven, and experience less enthusiasm. They may also find levels of stimulation that are rewarding and energizing for someone high in Extraversion merely annoying or tiring (or even overwhelming). Their reserved demeanor is not likely to indicate an intense engagement with the world of imagination and ideas, however, unless they are also high in Intellect/Imagination.

It’s All in Your Head

Extraversion/introversion isn’t merely a psychological concept. The differences can be observed in the brain. According to DeYoung, the unifying function of dopamine is exploration. The release of dopamine increases motivation to explore and facilitates cognitive and behavioral processes useful in exploration. When dopamine floods the brain, both introverts and extroverts become more talkative, alert to their surroundings, and motivated to take risks and explore the environment. Both introverts and extroverts have the same amount of dopamine available, but dopamine is more active in the brains of extroverts than in the brains of introverts.

Here are some of the other differences that have been observed in the brains of extraverts and introverts.

GENES

Although no one gene determines temperament, D4DR (“the novelty seeking” gene) is found on the 11th chromosome which has been deemed the personality chromosome because of its influence on behavior, particularly exhilaration and excitement. Thrill seekers examined in a study conducted by geneticist Dr. Dean Hamer were shown to have a long D4DR gene and were less sensitive to the neurotransmitter dopamine. Those participants with more reflective and slower paced natures had shorter D4DR genes and a higher sensitivity to dopamine.

BLOOD FLOW

Rev up: In extraverts’ brains, blood flows in shorter pathways toward parts of the brain where external stimuli (visual, auditory, touch, and taste—but not smell) are processed. The neuropathways most used by extraverts are activated by dopamine. Extraverts, who tend to have a novelty seeking personality and can process a higher amount of external stimuli, are less sensitive to dopamine. Their brains use adrenaline to make more dopamine.

As a result, the brain becomes alert and hyper-focused on its surroundings. Blood sugar and free fatty acids are elevated to provide more energy, and digestion is slowed. Thinking is reduced, and the person becomes prepared to make snap decisions. While extraverts thrive on the dopamine-charged good feelings created when they engage the sympathetic nervous system, for introverts, it’s too much.

Throttle down: Introverts have more blood flow to their brains than extraverts, and the blood in introverts’ brains travels longer, more complicated pathways and focuses on parts of the brain involved with internal experiences such as remembering, solving problems, and planning. The more dominant neurotransmitter in introverts’ neuropathways is acetylcholine, which affects attention and learning, influences the ability to stay calm and alert, utilizes long-term memory, and activates voluntary movement. Acetylcholine makes us feel good when we think and feel.

GRAY MATTER

A 2012 Harvard University study revealed that introverts tended to have larger, thicker gray matter in their prefrontal cortex—a region of the brain that is linked to abstract thought and decision-making—while extraverts had less gray matter. The study’s author concluded this might account for introverts’ tendencies to sit in a corner and ponder things thoroughly before making a decision, and extraverts’ ability to live in the moment and take risks without fully thinking everything through (which has its cons and benefits, of course).

FACIAL RECOGNITION

The brains of extraverts pay more attention to human faces than do introverts. Introverts’ brains don’t seem to distinguish between inanimate objects and human faces.

Experiencing Rewards

Extraverts tend to experience more positive feelings and get more out of rewards in general, and they are more likely to seek and spend more time on rewarding activities. When they do, they also experience a higher boost in momentary happiness as compared to their introverted counterparts. This partly explains the direct relationship between extraversion and momentary happiness. [The relationship between extraversion and happiness or subjective well-being (SWB) is one of the most consistently replicated and robust findings in the SWB literature. –W. Pavot, E Diener, F. Fujita]

Extraverts are more likely to go for immediate gratification, while introverts tend to delay rewards and instead invest in the hope of a larger payoff down the road. They are significantly more likely to prefer smaller, immediate rewards compared with introverts overall. When extraverts are in a good mood, they are even more likely to choose an immediate reward. Regardless of mood, introverts were more likely than extraverts to prefer delayed rewards.

Extraverts are already sensitive to rewards, so when they are in a positive mood it primes the brain’s reward system even more, so they’re focused on immediate opportunities. That may explain why extraverts are so impulsive, since when they are exposed to potential rewards that puts them into a positive mood, which in turn cues them that now is the time to pursue that reward.

The reason extraverts seem to experience stronger positive emotions may be based on how their brains process the memory of rewards. Dopamine affects how we feel when we recall a reward. Stronger dopamine response in relation to the memory of a first kiss, for example, carries with it a certain rush (associative conditioning).

The brains of extraverts show an extremely high level of associative conditioning, while the brains of introverts showed essentially none. Over time, the brains of extraverts “collect” an increasingly more robust network of reward-memories. Recalling these memories triggers their brains’ reward system, eliciting positive emotions.

Introverts brains don’t do this sort of reward collecting—or at least they don’t do it nearly as much or as strongly as the brains of extraverts. On a day-to-day basis, introverts have less of a reward-memory network to rely on for a “boost,” while their extraverted counterparts are able to tap into their networks for boosts aplenty.

Extraverts report more happiness than introverts during effortful “rewarding” activities, such as sports and exercise, and financially rewarding work tasks. No difference was found in extraverts’ and introverts’ happiness during low-effort, low importance “pleasurable, hedonic” activities, such as watching TV, listening to music, relaxing, and shopping. Given that extraverts experience more happiness during rewarding activities, but not during pleasurable activities, it may be that extraverts don’t have a more responsive pleasure system, but rather a more active and responsive “desire system.”

Extraverts experience a bigger happiness boost than introverts when they perform rewarding activities with other people, rather than alone. Extraverts spend more time on rewarding activities than introverts, and they tend to have more social contact during their daily activities.

The brain’s reward system generally operates outside our conscious awareness, so it can be difficult to identify rewards. Some people are more resistant to rewards than others. As far as the brain is concerned, anything that produces a hit of dopamine is good regardless of our opinion of it. If you want to get serious about long-term behavior change, it’s important to understand the role of rewards and the way your particular brain responds to them.

Light Up Your Brain with Gratitude

November 27, 2015 by Joycelyn Campbell Leave a Comment

Thanksgiving is the one day a year we set aside to reflect on the people and the things we’re grateful for. At least that’s the idea. The reality of feast, family, friends, fun, and football isn’t entirely off the mark. All those warm, festive feelings are good for us and good for each other. At least they have the potential for keeping us out of trouble. But the giving thanks part of Thanksgiving can easily fall by the wayside, especially in light of another characteristic of the holiday: frenzy.

Yes, it’s nice to have a day that’s focused on people getting along, eating good food together, and thinking about what we’re grateful for. But it’s hard to stuff a year’s worth of gratitude into a single day. Gratitude is more powerful and more effective when undertaken as a regular practice than when treated as an annual event.

Multiple studies confirm that gratitude can improve your health, happiness, and wellbeing. Among other things, a regular gratitude practice can help you:

Sleep better and longer
Exercise more
Be more optimistic
Decrease aches and pains
Lower anxiety and depression
Increase resilience

How? Well, researchers at the National Institute of Health (NIH) observed that people who felt gratitude had higher activity in the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is an area of the brain responsible for controlling such bodily functions as eating, drinking, and sleeping, as well as influencing stress levels and metabolism.

Gratitude also activates the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is involved in the brain’s reward system. The release of dopamine fills us with a feeling of pleasure. It’s the reward we get for the behavior we just engaged in. The purpose of the brain’s reward system is to help ensure that we learn—and remember—behaviors that enhance our chances of remaining alive. That’s why so many of the things we naturally find rewarding are related to food and reproduction. In addition to food and sex, lots of things trigger the release of dopamine, including social interactions, generosity, and—as it turns out—gratitude.

Dopamine plays a role in:

Movement
Memory
Behavior and cognition
Attention and alertness
Motivation
Sleep
Mood
Learning

It’s part of a brain circuit called the mesolimbic pathway, which connects behaviors to feelings of pleasure, resulting in the formation of habits. When dopamine is released, emotional and learning circuits are activated to increase the likelihood we will remember what we did so we can repeat the behavior. The hit of dopamine we get from feeling grateful engages our brain in what neuroscience researcher Alex Korb calls “a virtuous cycle.” Once we begin practicing gratitude, our brain actively looks for things to be grateful for. How cool is that?

Find a Gratitude Practice that Works for You

There are several different ways to practice gratitude. You can choose one, mix and match, or modify one or more to suit yourself. The keyword is “practice,” which means doing it on a regular basis.

Gratitude Journal: Keep a gratitude journal in which to record things you experience that you’re grateful for. You can do it by hand, on a computer, or with an app.

Gratitude List: Think of—or record—one or more things you’re grateful for, either every day or once a week. Interestingly, there’s evidence that doing this weekly is more effective than doing it daily.

Expressing Gratitude: Create a daily practice of conveying your gratitude to other people—friends, family, co-workers, service people, even strangers—verbally or in writing.

Gratitude Meditation: Begin your meditation by acknowledging what you are grateful for in the present moment.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. —Albert Schweitzer

Gratitude is an appreciation for what is meaningful and valuable to us. Simply experiencing feelings of gratitude can enhance our wellbeing by changing our brain. But since we’re social animals, it makes sense that sharing those feelings by expressing our gratitude whenever possible is even more rewarding.

How Reward-Resistant Are You?

October 2, 2015 by Joycelyn Campbell Leave a Comment

What’s the number one obstacle that gets in the way of people successfully changing or creating habits or accomplishing their goals? No contest! Resistance to identifying and using rewards is the clear and consistent winner.

Given our culture’s obsession with happiness, you wouldn’t think incorporating rewards into the change process would be a problem. Well, at least I didn’t anticipate how much of a problem it would be.

I’ve heard a number of explanations for this often deeply entrenched resistance. The two most common explanations are:

Accomplishing what I intended to do should be reward enough.
I can’t really identify any rewards.

Are You Reward-Resistant?

You may believe that accomplishment should be its own reward, but your brain doesn’t necessarily see it that way—and it’s the way your brain sees it, not the way you do, that matters. Sure some activities and accomplishments are intrinsically rewarding, but that’s not the case for all activities. Rewards help your brain help you accomplish the things you set out to do and turn desirable behaviors into habits. You can read more about how this works in Food, Sex, Drugs, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and Habits.

Apart from it not being true, believing that everything should be intrinsically rewarding might be making it difficult for you to identify the rewards you’re currently getting. That’s why explanation number one and explanation number two often go hand-in-hand.

Most things you find rewarding (pleasant or enjoyable) can be used as rewards. So once you understand that rewards are rewarding, you can probably make a list of potential rewards. However, you might encounter another common obstacle: But I just do those things whenever I feel like it. That’s precisely the problem, and the result is that you may be rewarding yourself for behaviors you don’t want to perpetuate—thus actively perpetuating them—or for not accomplishing what you set out to do. It doesn’t matter whether or not that’s your intention. Unless they’re backed up by persistent action, your intentions (or lack thereof) and your opinions aren’t remotely interesting to your brain.

What Not to Do

Turning rewarding activities into rewards may seem unnatural at first. Say you decide your reward for completing a task will be to attend a movie, but you don’t complete the task. The way to get your brain to take you seriously is to not go to the movie. But it’s easy to rationalize why you should go to the movie anyway, especially if you made plans to go with other people. So it isn’t a good idea to set up rewards that involve other people, at least while you’re getting the hang of the reward process.

And don’t set something up as a reward if you know you’re going to do it no matter what. A reward needs to be something genuinely pleasurable—something you’ll miss if you don’t get to do it or have it—but not something you’re already committed to.

System 1 (the unconscious) is the impulsive part of the brain. It’s focused on immediate gratification, on what feels good right now. The more frequently you give in to the impulses of System 1, especially when you’re trying to implement a reward system, the longer it will take to be successful. Accomplishing long-term or even short-term goals and changing or creating new habits requires persistence and repetition—as well as restraint, which is a function of System 2.

Some of my clients are more successful than others at identifying and using rewards. Those who are successful are willing to engage in the trial and error process until they discover something that works. When you hit on the right combination, you might discover that rewards aren’t just effective, they can make even tedious projects fun. Here’s a great example, and one you can use as a blueprint for your own goals, projects, or habits.

Will Declutter for Plants

One of my clients has undertaken a major decluttering project in her home. This is a project she’s been attempting to complete for a while, so she’s tried many different approaches and strategies. Some were successful temporarily but not over the long haul. Others didn’t work at all.

But the system she’s using now seems perfect—not only because she has the reward piece figured out, but also because it’s based on acknowledging, rather than minimizing, baby steps.

For each 15-minute period of time she devotes to her decluttering project, she enters a checkmark into her daily planner. That provides her with immediate gratification (a hit of dopamine) and helps her keep track of her progress. For each checkmark in the planner, she puts one dollar into a jar, which gives her another hit of dopamine. The jar is clear glass and it’s in a prominent location so she can see the accumulating cash.

When she has enough money in the jar, she buys plants, which provides a bigger hit of dopamine at the time of the purchase and smaller hits when she sees the plants in her living space afterward. One thing that makes this reward system work is that she doesn’t allow herself to buy a plant unless she’s got enough funds for it in the jar. The system would break down if she spent money on plants that she hadn’t yet “earned.” Another thing that makes it work is the fact that the plants add to the pleasant ambiance her decluttering is intended to create in her home.

I think it’s pretty genius.

What do you think?

Food, Sex, Drugs, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and Habits

July 17, 2014 by Joycelyn Campbell 2 Comments

What do all these things have in common? The answer is dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is involved in the brain’s reward system. It is triggered by the expectation of a reward and its release fills us with a feeling of pleasure. Our brain then associates the behavior with the feeling of pleasure.

The brain’s reward system helps ensure that we learn—and remember—behaviors that enhance our chances of remaining alive. That’s why so many of the things we naturally find rewarding are related to food and reproduction. Many different substances, activities, and behaviors trigger the release of dopamine. Some of them, in addition to food and sex, are:

social interactions
music
generosity
scary movies, scary situations, or scary thoughts
psychoactive drugs (alcohol, cocaine, heroin, nicotine, etc.)
gambling
sugar

Dopamine is part of a brain circuit called the mesolimbic pathway. The mesolimbic pathway connects behaviors to feelings of pleasure, which results in the formation of habits. A pleasurable experience acts as a stimulus to wake up the mesolimbic pathway. Along with the release of dopamine, emotional and learning circuits are activated to increase the likelihood we will remember what we did.

A reward is positive reinforcement. It motivates us to repeat the behavior. In the case of long-term goals, small hits of dopamine encourage us to keep moving forward, so it pays to know where you are headed. And it’s more effective to acknowledge and celebrate each small accomplishment along the way than it is to wait for one big jolt of dopamine at the end.

Dopamine also plays a role in:

movement
memory
behavior and cognition
attention and alertness
motivation
sleep
mood
learning

Abnormal levels of dopamine are involved in Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, and drug addiction.

The Good, the Bad, and the Addictive

Although a wide variety of behaviors can affect dopamine levels, some of those behaviors have a greater potential for being harmful or even life-threatening. Psychostimulant drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and ecstasy operate by inhibiting the reuptake of dopamine. As a result, the brain remains flooded with it. The person using the drug will continue ingesting it in order to maintain the increased level of dopamine.

Dopamine affects the sympathetic nervous system, resulting in a release of energy which is intended to spur us on toward the finish line. So the abuse of psychostimulant drugs often results in increased heart rate and elevated blood pressure. There is no long-term change to the production of dopamine or to dopamine receptors in the brain as a result of using these kinds of drugs, but when a person stops taking them, he or she will experience some seriously unpleasant feelings.

Many activities or behaviors performed compulsively are classified as addictive, even though they have no component of physical dependence. That’s because the behaviors stimulate the brain’s reward system—or over-stimulate it—to the extent that people are driven by a craving for whatever gets them those hits of dopamine. Craving a reward doesn’t just happen in the case of addictions. Craving is actually essential for successfully creating good habits, too. Whether it’s using cocaine or getting more fruit and vegetables in one’s diet, the brain’s reward system operates the same way.

Behavior —> Dopamine Hit —> Pleasure —> “Do it again!”

Rewards Reinforce Habits

If there are no rewards, or weak rewards, habits are much less likely to take hold. That’s because the basal ganglia, which is the part of the brain that turns repetitive behaviors into habits, depends on having enough dopamine to operate efficiently.

If something doesn’t produce a hit of dopamine in our brain, we will not experience it as rewarding. It doesn’t matter if 99% of the rest of the people in the world find it rewarding (i.e., get a dopamine hit from it). If it doesn’t give us a dopamine hit, it won’t work as a reward. We talk about the reward as if it’s the activity, behavior, thing, or substance. But the things (activities, behaviors, etc.) that feel rewarding are essentially means to the same end: that hit of dopamine.

Sometimes we know what the reward for a habit is, but since habits can be formed outside our awareness, there are times when we’re kind of clueless. And as far as the brain is concerned, anything that produces a hit of dopamine is good. The brain doesn’t care about our opinions or mental assessments of good or bad. No one sets out to become addicted to a substance or a behavior. The brain’s reward system operates outside our conscious awareness. Feed into it and we create a habit or an addiction. Try to stop it consciously using will power or intention without understanding the powerful system we’re up against and we fail more often than not.

It’s easy to believe that your verbal inner voice is your whole thought process and ignore your neurochemical self. —Loretta Graziano Breuning, Ph.D.

In order to change a habit or start a new one, we have to be able to identify what it is that gives us that hit of dopamine. We may know we feel good every time we do a particular thing without knowing what part of the behavior is creating the reward. It’s especially important to figure rewards out correctly when trying to change an existing habit. If the new behavior doesn’t produce a similar reward, it won’t work as well.

Long-Term Reward System

Dopamine doesn’t just play a role in immediate rewards or in the formation of habits, it also helps us stay focused on long-term goals whose rewards are not within sight.

The journal Nature reported on a study conducted by researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle and MIT that revealed details on how the brain is able to stay focused on long-term goals.

While most previous studies have involved looking at dopamine with respect to an immediate reward, the new study found increasing levels of dopamine as laboratory rats approached an expected reward after delayed gratification.

Researchers were able to continuously record dopamine concentration while training rats to find their way through a maze in pursuit of a chocolate milk reward. What they found was that levels of dopamine rose steadily and culminated in a peak level as the rodent neared the reward. According to Ann Graybiel, brain researcher at MIT:

The dopamine signal seems to reflect how faraway the rat is from its goal. The closer it gets, the stronger the signal becomes. It’s as if the animal were adjusting its expectations, knowing it had further to go.

Graybiel believes the same thing happens in the brains of humans.

Of course, many of our long-term goals could take weeks, months, or even years to achieve. In such cases, we’d be wise to set short-term goals, track our progress, and reward ourselves for achievement along the way.

All Rewards Are Not Created Equal

As previously stated, a reward that works for one person may not work at all for someone else. One person may imagine soaking for an hour in a hot bubble bath to be a tiny slice of heaven while another person considers it cruel and unusual punishment. And some rewards that seem small and innocuous might turn out to have unintended negative consequences.

Temperament-Based Rewards: Understanding our personality or temperament can help us identify the type of reward that is most effective. Rewards can be physical/material, emotional, or mental. Someone who responds well to mental rewards, for example, may not be very motivated by that bubble bath.

Guilty Pleasures: It’s counterproductive to use something we ordinarily feel guilty about or try to avoid doing as a reward. That’s especially true if we use “guilty pleasure” rewards often. What we end up doing is reinforcing the craving for something we’ve already concluded doesn’t serve us in the long run. Using “bad” behavior to reward ourselves for good behavior pretty much defeats the purpose.

Satisfying Rewards: Know yourself. Then explore. Stretch your imagination. We tend to get into ruts in all kinds of areas including that of rewarding ourselves. Dopamine is more likely to be triggered when we try—and enjoy—new activities. There are probably a lot of things we might find pleasurable and have even thought about doing but never followed through on. Identifying some of those things and intentionally trying them out as rewards could expand our horizons and maybe even lead us in new and pleasurable directions.

One-time or Occasional Rewards: Rewarding ourselves after an intense or exhausting effort can be tricky. The point when the effort or ordeal is over is often when our self-control is at a low point. It’s easy to feel we really deserve a treat of some kind. The almost automatic next step is to give ourselves a free pass to overindulge. But that turns an opportunity to reinforce positive behavior into an excuse for self-indulgence, and it could easily negate the sense of accomplishment we would otherwise feel. Planning ahead can solve the problem. If we decide what our reward will be ahead of time—before our self-control is depleted—we can bypass temptation. Then it’s a win-win situation.

Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Rewards

Sometimes the reward stimulus comes from others or from our environment. We might work extra hard for a bigger paycheck or for acknowledgement of our efforts if those things make us feel good. We might take up some form of exercise to look better at the beach or swimming pool or senior center if other people’s approval makes us feel good. We might get into the habit of picking things up around the house to avoid arguing with our spouse or partner if maintaining the peace makes us feel good. Similarly, we might change our diet or take up meditation so our doctor won’t get on our case about our blood pressure if getting through our next appointment without another lecture makes us feel good.

Extrinsic rewards can be effective for a while, maybe for a long while. Extrinsic rewards often motivate us to change or start a habit, and that’s a good thing. But extrinsic rewards are usually not effective over the long haul. If we ask ourselves why we want to do what we’re doing—not why someone else thinks we should do it—we have a better opportunity to clarify what’s really important to us. And if we can’t answer that question, it’s a sign we might just be spinning our wheels.

If we can identify a reward behavior that is meaningful to us—an intrinsic reward—we’re much more likely to stick with the habit or behavior. In fact, if we focus on intrinsic rewards, we’re not only more likely to be successful in creating and maintaining habits we want to have, we’re also likely to find out we no longer need to reward ourselves for continuing them! Rewards are great motivators, and they are critical in kick-starting new habits. But nothing beats the moment of discovering the habit has become a part of who we are and not just something we do.

Relegating What Matters to Reward Status

It can be tempting to use something that really matters to us as a reward for putting time and effort into something that doesn’t. If I get the house clean, I can get some writing done. If I finish this project for so-and-so, then I can work on my [music, quilting, gardening, etc.…].

This is an unequivocally bad idea and entirely backwards.The things that matter to us are often the very activities that energize and enliven us, whereas the things that don’t matter, but which we have to do anyway, can be draining and tiring. Putting off doing something that really matters until we’re drained and tired from directing the bulk of our energy and attention on things that don’t matter usually leads to not doing the things that matter.

If there’s something that’s really important, we need to find another way to include it in our lives. Making sure we spend time on things that matter can actually make those other activities less burdensome.

Besides, if we have to constantly reward ourselves for getting through the day, we might want to consider changing at least some of what it is we’re doing during the day.

~ ~ ~

The bottom line is that the importance of rewards cannot be overstated, yet this is often the step people omit when they are trying to change their behavior or achieve their goals. Maybe they place excessive confidence in self-control or will-power. Or maybe they believe they should be able to do these things without having to reward themselves.

But the brain’s reward system is going to operate with or without your consent or input. So why not be intentional about it and use it instead of letting it use you?