Humans are really bad at guessing what is going to make them happy in the long run. This is due to our inability to be very good emotional forecasters. What this basically means is that when trying to predict what will make us happy we tend to grab for the closest dopamine branch, whether that’s high calorie food, smartphones, or alcohol. Our brains associate dopamine with survival so we believe that everything that gives us a quick dopamine surge will help us to survive. However, in today’s world, advertisers and companies exploit this fact and get us to jump for whatever they want us to buy. However, the stronger branch that will actually increase our happiness are experiences that result in a serotonin increase in our bodies: social time, exercise, personal touch. So in an nutshell, our brains are always programmed to go for the quick fix even if it negatively effects our long term well-being.

• FACT: Our brains run off of a “scarcity principle” meaning that our brains think all resources, including food will not always be accessible.
• TAKEAWAY: The human species is really bad at saying “no” and we have evolution to blame for it. Our engrained programs tell us to eat as much high calorie food as often as possible. Our ancestors learned and passed along the knowledge to us that resources might not be there tomorrow if we “delay gratification.”