Don't take Dope. Take Dopamine

[AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a repost of an article from January of 2006. The Author has been busy lately and has not had the time to prepare new material. That will change, however.]

AMERICANS ON DOPE?
NATURAL SELECTION TO BLAME?
EUROPEANS DO NATURAL HIGH?

One of the greatest things about doing economic analysis is that the Author stumbles on to the most amazing things. One of the most interesting is the developing field of economic psychology.

John Mauldin, in Thoughts from the Frontline[i], September 23, 2005, describes some research on Americans brains and high dopamine levels. Dopamine is a pleasure inducing brain chemical and it is associated with addictions and risk-taking behavior. And according to the research cited in Mauldin’s article, dopamine responds more to unpredictable rewards than predictable rewards.

Mauldin goes on to quote from Dr. Peter C. Whybrow, a psychiatrist and author of the book “American Mania”. Dr. Whybrow believes that the high incidence of dopamine-fueled Americans has created both a manic and dynamic society. More kicks, less stability.

DARWIN RESPONSIBLE?

Dr. Whybrow then links American’s high dopamine levels to migration and natural selection. Whybrow states that approximately 2% of any populations have enough dopamine to create the risk-taking behavior to migrate from their group. And since America is a nation of immigrants, and descendants of immigrants, those dopamine-fueled immigrants will create a population that is naturally selected for dopamine-induced behavior. Dr. Whybrow believes that perhaps 50% of Americans have these high-dopamine characteristics.

As most readers now, the Author is interested in the only scientifically tested and accepted basis for life on Earth. Evolution and Natural Selection. It is fact, in the sense that gravity is fact and Maxwell’s electromagnetism equations are fact. He is currently reading “The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution”, by preeminent biologist Richard Dawkins.

An interesting paragraph in the book discusses the work of D.K. Belyaev to systematically breed silver foxes for tameness[ii]. In only 20 generations, Belayev, by mating only the tamest individuals of each generation, produced foxes that behaved like pet dogs. 20 generations is only a blink of the evolutionary eye. And interestingly, these foxes had higher levels of the brain chemical serotonin. In humans, low levels of serotonin often cause depression.

DO EUROPEANS HAVE MORE SEROTONIN?

The Author doesn’t know, if Europeans have higher serotonin levels than Americans, but he knows that Americans take Prozac and other SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) like drunks swig booze. If the down-side of high dopamine levels is low serotonin levels, then America is likely a nation of depressed high-achievers. And Europeans could just be a happier lot.

That is it for the Author, a lover of high-performance motorcycles, fast cars, (formerly fast women) and stock day-trading. Another day, another shot of dopamine.

LIFE IN THE DESERT OF THE REAL!

[i] http://www.frontlinethoughts.com/printarticle.asp?id=mwo092305
[ii] Dawkins, Richard, “The Ancestors Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution”, pps.29-30.