This Cat May Have Just Saved Canada. You Won’t Believe How.<\/h1>\n<\/header>\n\nby\u00a0DEREK BERES<\/a><\/div>\nDECEMBER 10, 2013, 4:37 PM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n![\"Bt-cat\"](\"http:\/\/assets3.bigthink.com\/system\/idea_thumbnails\/53786\/headline\/bt-cat.jpg?1386711436\")
<\/div>\nLast Friday, Guelph resident Andrew McPherson\u2019s cat, Tutu, appears to have achieved the impossible. Local residents claim their small town will never be the same again, and the future of Canada now seems certain.<\/p>\n
Ok, so this article has nothing to do with a mystical cat or the sleepy suburb an hour outside of Toronto, but if you\u2019re reading this, your curiosity was piqued. And there\u2019s good reason.<\/p>\n
Part of it is what is now dubbed the\u00a0Upworthy<\/a>-style headlines. Started in March 2012 by ex-employees of Move On and\u00a0The Onion<\/em>, the viral media site clocked an incredible\u00a087 million unique visitors<\/a>\u00a0last month. The site\u2019s headline aesthetic\u2014a mini-story that makes clicking through irresistible\u2014has been cloned by numerous websites attempting to create their own clickbait.<\/p>\n\n\nAdvertising<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\nWhile\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>\u2019s Robinson Meyer recently\u00a0explained the analytics<\/a>behind the massive surge in Upworthy\u2019s traffic, what is really interesting is why the titles are so seductive. It all has to do with our SEEKING system.<\/p>\nWhile not usually considered an emotional system in our brain, Estonian-born American neuroscientist\u00a0Jak Panksepp<\/a>\u00a0argues that SEEKING is a function of the main instinctual-emotional system in humans in\u00a0The Archaeology of Mind<\/em>. We need to be in this mode in order to chase a romantic partner, find food, get to work in the morning…even get out of bed in the morning.<\/p>\nWhile such regular activities seem everyday, it is in this enormous neural pathway\u2014from the midbrain to the Lateral hypothalamus into the medial frontal cortex\u2014that dopamine is released. And without dopamine, we would have no motivation to do anything in life.<\/p>\n
Yet what makes this system even more incredible is not that dopamine is released during gratification, but several seconds\u00a0before<\/em>\u00a0we\u2019re gratified. That is, while we\u2019re engaged in seeking, our anticipation of an event\u2014the first sip of beer, the moments before you undress a partner, the build up before the beat drops\u2014forces dopamine to be released.<\/p>\nRelating this pathway to music, Ohio State university music researcherDavid Huron<\/a>\u00a0writes,<\/p>\nAs we listen to music our anticipation builds, which generates pleasurable experiences for the listener. When a stimulus is anticipated, a positively-valenced emotional response arises.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis is why disappointment ensues if you\u2019re expecting a beat to drop and it doesn\u2019t\u2014or if you click through an article about nationalistic Canadian cats to find out it has nothing to do with feline life.<\/p>\n
The anticipation phase could also help explain the \u2018magical\u2019 experience one encounters when engaged in what Hungarian psychology professorMih\u00e1ly\u00a0Cs\u00edkszentmih\u00e1lyi<\/a>\u00a0calls Flow: a runner\u2019s high, being immersed in a novel, any moment when your complete and total reality is present in one focused effort.<\/p>\nWhen musicians, athletes, actors and chess players describe being in Flow experiences, they claim the impetus for action was not consciously initiated. Their movements seem to flow like a river with no consciousness of how they were moving or acting. Neuroscientist and author\u00a0Sam Harris<\/a>says, \u201cThis experience has been at the core of human spirituality for millennia.\u201d<\/p>\nThe tiny squirts of dopamine we receive when hearing the ding of a text message or seeing a snazzy headline taps into that same anticipatory neural system. If the content matches our expectations, we feel satisfied, and depending on how much it blows us away\u2014Zach Galifianakis Says Everything You Want to Say to Justin Bieber Right to His Face<\/a>\u00a0is one great example\u2014we can then feel inspired, outraged and a whole host of other emotions. This is the brilliance of Upworthy: tapping into our ancient neural networks of anticipation and gratification.<\/p>\nImage: Renata Apanaviciene\/shutterstock.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is actually about behaviour change, flow and dopamine… \u00a0vulnerable, manipulable moments in conscious life being exploited by new online offerings like upworthy. Downloadable crack. Hope it starts being used more for good… http:\/\/bigthink.com\/21st-century-spirituality\/this-cat-may-have-just-saved-canada-you-wont-believe-how This Cat May Have Just Saved Canada. You Won’t Believe How. by\u00a0DEREK BERES DECEMBER 10, 2013, 4:37 PM Last Friday, Guelph … Continue reading Upworthy, flow, dopamine…<\/span>
<\/div>\nLast Friday, Guelph resident Andrew McPherson\u2019s cat, Tutu, appears to have achieved the impossible. Local residents claim their small town will never be the same again, and the future of Canada now seems certain.<\/p>\n
Ok, so this article has nothing to do with a mystical cat or the sleepy suburb an hour outside of Toronto, but if you\u2019re reading this, your curiosity was piqued. And there\u2019s good reason.<\/p>\n
Part of it is what is now dubbed the\u00a0Upworthy<\/a>-style headlines. Started in March 2012 by ex-employees of Move On and\u00a0The Onion<\/em>, the viral media site clocked an incredible\u00a087 million unique visitors<\/a>\u00a0last month. The site\u2019s headline aesthetic\u2014a mini-story that makes clicking through irresistible\u2014has been cloned by numerous websites attempting to create their own clickbait.<\/p>\n While\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>\u2019s Robinson Meyer recently\u00a0explained the analytics<\/a>behind the massive surge in Upworthy\u2019s traffic, what is really interesting is why the titles are so seductive. It all has to do with our SEEKING system.<\/p>\n While not usually considered an emotional system in our brain, Estonian-born American neuroscientist\u00a0Jak Panksepp<\/a>\u00a0argues that SEEKING is a function of the main instinctual-emotional system in humans in\u00a0The Archaeology of Mind<\/em>. We need to be in this mode in order to chase a romantic partner, find food, get to work in the morning…even get out of bed in the morning.<\/p>\n While such regular activities seem everyday, it is in this enormous neural pathway\u2014from the midbrain to the Lateral hypothalamus into the medial frontal cortex\u2014that dopamine is released. And without dopamine, we would have no motivation to do anything in life.<\/p>\n Yet what makes this system even more incredible is not that dopamine is released during gratification, but several seconds\u00a0before<\/em>\u00a0we\u2019re gratified. That is, while we\u2019re engaged in seeking, our anticipation of an event\u2014the first sip of beer, the moments before you undress a partner, the build up before the beat drops\u2014forces dopamine to be released.<\/p>\n Relating this pathway to music, Ohio State university music researcherDavid Huron<\/a>\u00a0writes,<\/p>\n As we listen to music our anticipation builds, which generates pleasurable experiences for the listener. When a stimulus is anticipated, a positively-valenced emotional response arises.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is why disappointment ensues if you\u2019re expecting a beat to drop and it doesn\u2019t\u2014or if you click through an article about nationalistic Canadian cats to find out it has nothing to do with feline life.<\/p>\n The anticipation phase could also help explain the \u2018magical\u2019 experience one encounters when engaged in what Hungarian psychology professorMih\u00e1ly\u00a0Cs\u00edkszentmih\u00e1lyi<\/a>\u00a0calls Flow: a runner\u2019s high, being immersed in a novel, any moment when your complete and total reality is present in one focused effort.<\/p>\n When musicians, athletes, actors and chess players describe being in Flow experiences, they claim the impetus for action was not consciously initiated. Their movements seem to flow like a river with no consciousness of how they were moving or acting. Neuroscientist and author\u00a0Sam Harris<\/a>says, \u201cThis experience has been at the core of human spirituality for millennia.\u201d<\/p>\n The tiny squirts of dopamine we receive when hearing the ding of a text message or seeing a snazzy headline taps into that same anticipatory neural system. If the content matches our expectations, we feel satisfied, and depending on how much it blows us away\u2014Zach Galifianakis Says Everything You Want to Say to Justin Bieber Right to His Face<\/a>\u00a0is one great example\u2014we can then feel inspired, outraged and a whole host of other emotions. This is the brilliance of Upworthy: tapping into our ancient neural networks of anticipation and gratification.<\/p>\n Image: Renata Apanaviciene\/shutterstock.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is actually about behaviour change, flow and dopamine… \u00a0vulnerable, manipulable moments in conscious life being exploited by new online offerings like upworthy. Downloadable crack. Hope it starts being used more for good… http:\/\/bigthink.com\/21st-century-spirituality\/this-cat-may-have-just-saved-canada-you-wont-believe-how This Cat May Have Just Saved Canada. You Won’t Believe How. by\u00a0DEREK BERES DECEMBER 10, 2013, 4:37 PM Last Friday, Guelph … Continue reading Upworthy, flow, dopamine…<\/span>