âThe more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely it is to become habit-forming.â â James Clear
In the 1940s, Dutch ethologist Nikolaas Tinbergen conducted a series of experiments on the nesting behavior of greylag geese. When an egg rolled out of the nest, a goose would stretch its neck to retrieve it and roll it backâa charming maternal instinct. But when Tinbergen replaced the egg with increasingly large objects, the geese would still try to retrieve them, straining themselves to roll back objects many times larger than any real egg could be.
The geese had a hard-wired preference for bigger eggs because bigger eggs were more likely to survive. But in the natural environment, there was no upper limit on âbignessââno giant fake eggs to exploit the preference. Tinbergen created supernormal stimuli: exaggerated versions of natural triggers that hijacked the animalsâ evolved responses.
Modern life is filled with supernormal stimuli designed to hijack human instincts. Junk food is engineered to hit the optimal combination of salt, sugar, and fat that no natural food achieves. Social media is algorithmically optimized to deliver the exact emotional triggersânovelty, validation, social status cuesâthat evolved to make us pay attention to the social world. Pornography presents hyper-idealized versions of sexual stimuli. Video games offer achievement feedback loops far more intense than anything in real work.
In each case, the behavior was adaptive in an ancestral environment but becomes maladaptive when hijacked by supernormal stimuli designed to maximize engagement regardless of wellbeing.
At the center of all of this is dopamineâthe neurotransmitter most associated with habit formation, reward, and motivation. Dopamine is often described as the âpleasure chemical,â but research reveals itâs more accurately the âanticipation chemical.â Dopamine surges not when you receive a reward, but when you expect one.
This is why the craving stage of the habit loop is so powerful. The moment you see a cue that predicts a reward, dopamine spikes and motivation surgesâbefore youâve even taken any action. And when a reward is uncertain or variable (like slot machines or social media âlikesâ), the dopamine spike is even higher.
If the problem is that many beneficial habits lack immediate appeal while many harmful habits have been artificially supercharged with dopamine hits, what can be done?
Clearâs answer is temptation bundling: pairing a habit you need to do with something you genuinely want to do.
âAfter [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT].â
Or more precisely, bundle them together so the reward of the enjoyable thing becomes intertwined with the necessary thing:
Temptation bundling works through a principle called Premackâs Principle: more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable ones. If you enjoy watching Netflix (high probability), attaching it to exercise (lower probability) can boost the attractiveness of exercise.
Over time, the neural pathways for the good habit become associated with the pleasure of the enjoyable activity. The habit itself becomes more attractiveânot because youâve changed the habit, but because youâve changed what it predicts.
Irish software engineer Ronan Byrne used this principle creatively. He loved watching Netflix but felt guilty doing it instead of exercising. His solution: he wrote code that only allowed Netflix to play if he was actively pedaling on a stationary bike. As soon as pedaling stopped, the show stopped.
What had been a source of tension (either watch TV and feel guilty, or exercise and miss shows) became a package deal. Within weeks, he was looking forward to exercise because it meant he could watch his shows. The habit became attractive by association.
One subtle but powerful technique for making habits more attractive is to change the words you use to describe them. Our language shapes our perception of activities.
This isnât toxic positivityâitâs perspective shifting. Many activities that we treat as burdens are genuinely privileges. People who are ill would love to have the opportunity to exercise. People without employment would love to have work that matters. Recognizing the genuine value in the activities weâre trying to build makes them more attractive.
Another technique from this chapter: creating a motivation ritual that primes your brain for a habit youâre building.
Athletes use this constantly. A pre-game playlist or warm-up routine that reliably produces a focused, energized state functions as a cueâand through repetition, becomes a trigger for peak performance.