Laura Occasionally Blogs

I'm reading Jonah Lehrer's* "How We Decide" (forget "Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me," that's so yesterday), a nonfiction book about decision-making and the brain which was featured and provided many of the stories on the excellent Radio Lab about choice. So far in the book, Lehrer has explained that our internal, faster-than-conscious decision-making algorithms are designed to quickly form predictions and learn from mistakes; we experience this emotionally before we do logically, as pleasure (more dopamine) or fear/dislike (less dopamine) when presented with a choice which has previously led to reward or disappointment, respectively.

* why is neuroscience journalist Jonah Lehrer such an Abercrombie model? the world may never know.

In other words, we get pleasure when our (subconscious) expectations of reward are met, and we feel upset when those expectations are dashed. Additionally, we get extra dopamine when the reward is surprising. So, what we like, from least to most:

-2 Surprising disappointment
-1 Predictable disappointment
+1 Predictable confirmation of expectations
+2 Surprising confirmation of expectations

At first, "surprising confirmation of expectations" seems like a contradiction, but to me, it makes a lot of sense when I relate it to fiction (BIG SURPRISE THERE). For example, I like watching an episode of 30 Rock I've already seen, but I love watching a new one. I know an old episode will be good; and while I know enough about the show to form certain predictions (a general assessment of quality, sure, but also more specific feelings about the characters and situations that are plausible in the universe), I don't know what will happen in that specific episode. Similarly, I'm more disappointed when an episode of 30 Rock bad than if I see a worse episode of a show I don't know or expect to be bad. And a new show that's surprisingly awesome is possibly even more rewarding than a good, new episode of a show you expect to be good.

This also explains why the plot twist is such an attractive risk. Get people familiar enough with the rules of your universe that they're forming expectations, and you can really thrill them by thwarting those expectations in a way that still honors the internal logic of the story, or "feels right" (subconscious version of same). The best twists are those that seem predictable in retrospect, but which you didn't--consciously--predict.

Of course, TODAY they come out with a new version for the same price that addresses ALL of my problems with kindle: smaller body with the same size screen (ie less wasted real estate); dark gray in color (I hate the look-at-me bright-white); better contrast on the screen; more storage space. I WILL NOT BUY ANOTHER KINDLE. But I should have waited!