22nd February 2012


Why we're drawn to novelty


More than any other species, humans are primed to be attracted to the new, the different, the novel.

It's why we feel curious when we see a new face, or may even rush up to meet a potential new friend. It's why we line up to be the first to buy a new gadget and why we feel the need to constantly check for text messages, emails, Twitter and 24hour television for the next hit of news or celebrity gossip.

But people have different appetites for novelty, says science writer Winifred Gallagher, author of New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change.

About 15 per cent of people are neophobes - they hang back at the prospect of something new and untried. Another 15 per cent are neophiliacs - they readily embrace novelty, and in fact often rush thoughtlessly into new experiences. Most of us, the remaining 70 per cent, are neophiles - those who like new things but prefer to let someone else try them out first.

Steve Jobs was a classic example of someone who kept searching for the new thing. These people are dynamos and we need them in society. These are the movers and shakers, says Gallagher, who lives in New York City.

Our quest for novelty may be one of the reasons why Homo sapiens survived while Neanderthals are extinct. Homo sapiens were less hesitant to try new things, go new places and meet new people, all the better to trade ideas, useful products and even genes. Whether it's scanning for predators on the African Savanna or ducking traffic in the streets of New York, you have to be sensitive to potential dangers in the world around you, but curious enough to approach new things that may be useful to you.

Gallagher, a mother of five, became fascinated by the human relationship with novelty while she wrote Rapt, a book about attention and focus, and how those qualities affect creativity and success. Her quest for an explanation for the draw of novelty took her from archeological sites to neuroscience laboratories.

Attention deficit disorder is one of the most commonly diagnosed mental conditions in children, for example. But rather than being unfocused, some of these novelty-seeking children have the potential to be superkids, she says. As long as they are in the right kind of school, they do very well.

At the same time, many a neophiliac has been burned while engaging in the next great thing, whether it's a romantic entanglement, an investment or one drink too many.

Varying affinities for novelty may all come down to dopamine differences in the brain. People are genetically programed to process dopamine differently, but, surprisingly, gender matters little. Men are no more likely to be novelty seekers compared to women, Gallagher learned.

TVs in airport waiting areas got Gallagher wondering about the constant craving for new information and what relevance that might have. New and sometimes very trivial information is constantly available by phone, the Internet and television.

Every single one of them can be seen as novelty generators. They churn out novelties at an unprecedented rate. For a species attuned to novelty, this is the perfect storm, Gallagher says. I'm not a Luddite, I love my MacBook and my BlackBerry. But much as with food, you have to be discriminating about your information diet.

The larger problem that underlies the pursuit of new things or newness sake isn't the waste of time and money, but that we have lost touch with novelty's purpose, she says.

This great gift isn't meant to push us to buy stuff we don't need or seek constant entertainment, but to help us adapt to change, from the economy's volatility to the climate crisis. And learn about and create useful new things.

Here's what Gallagher learned in her research:

1. Some of us are genetically pre-disposed to be novelty seekers. The proportion varies from one culture to another. Up to 25 per cent of the population in much of Europe, as well as Americans of European descent, carry the genetic variant 7R, which is linked to novelty seeking.

The highest incidence of 7R, up to 85 per cent, is in South American Indian tribes of the Amazon basin. It is almost non-existent in China.

2. Some researchers believe that 7R was a mutation that arose 40,000 to 50,000 years ago and helped prehistoric man survive environmental upheavals and migrate out of Africa and into other parts of the world. Novelty-seeking isn't necessarily good or bad; it depends on the context. While an affinity for the new and the desire to explore is an advantage to nomads and hunters (and modern-day entrepreneurs and explorers), the gene is perhaps a disadvantage in farming societies.

3. The toughness and sense of adventure that marks preschool neophiliacs - those who most enjoy novelty - does not necessarily serve them well in social settings. One study of 80 three-and four-year-old novelty-seekers found that, while they were friendly and outgoing, they could also be aggressive and lack empathy.

4. Nurture plays just as much a role as nature when it comes to outcomes for novelty seekers. Researchers in Finland found that children with genes that correspond with thrill-seeking are more likely to grow up to be extreme thriller-seekers if they have strict, emotionally distant mothers than if they grow up in supportive families.

5. James Fowler, a professor of politics and genetics at UC San Diego found that carriers of the 7R series of genes tend to become liberals instead of conservatives, but only if they had many friends and exposure to different viewpoints as a teen.

6. The word boredom wasn't used in the English language until the late 18th century. About five years ago, the cellphone company Motorola used microboredom to describe those brief moments of monotony that crop up, for example, while waiting in a line, and can be relieved by employing a mobile device to find amusement or do a small task.

7. We consume about 100,000 words from various media in a day, according to the UC San Diego's How Much Information project. That's a 350 per cent increase, measured in bytes, compared to 1980. These figures measure media consumption ranging from television and radio to reading materials, in print and online.

8. Workplace-change writer and lecturer Daniel Pink says businesses that want workers to innovate rather than avoid risk should allow and encourage workers to work at the edge of chaos, the place between order and the edge, where things are evolving, changing and new.

9. Genius-level intelligence can actually be an impediment to inventiveness. A study of children with IQs over 180 found that when it came to creativity, they were too obsessed with facts and correctness to cope with the ambiguous, messy real world, according to University of Georgia psychologist Mark Runco.

© Copyright (c) The Windsor Star





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