Chapter 27
Survival Coercions
People Affected: everyone
Specific Sensations: hunger, craving, thirst, seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
Sensory Triggers: absence of food or water
Mental Effect: negative
Sensory Stops: food or water
Key Feature: effect grows stronger with time
Specific Sensations: hunger, craving, thirst, seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
Sensory Triggers: absence of food or water
Mental Effect: negative
Sensory Stops: food or water
Key Feature: effect grows stronger with time
Purpose
Survival coercions encourage everyone to avoid malnutrition and dehydration.
Coercions add to your motivation, but only when necessary. Pleasing taste always encourages you to eat. Hunger also encourages you to eat, but only when you have not eaten recently. The alternative to temporary hunger is permanently stronger pleasing taste, which would cause too much eating. Eating would always be better than sex.
Sensory Triggers
Hunger is triggered when you need food.
Cravings are triggered when you need a particular nutrient. In war-torn Germany, pregnant women craved plaster. Their unborn children were depleting their calcium levels. Milk, their main source of calcium, was scarce. Plaster, which contains calcium, was abundant thanks to the Allied bombing of civilians.
Thirst is triggered when you need water. You become thirsty when you do not consume enough water with your food.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is triggered when you need vitamin D. SAD is most prevalent in northern latitudes during March, when the sun’s rays have been oblique for a few months. Canadians refer to this feeling as cabin fever.
Mental Effect
Survival coercions encourage everyone to avoid malnutrition and dehydration.
Coercions add to your motivation, but only when necessary. Pleasing taste always encourages you to eat. Hunger also encourages you to eat, but only when you have not eaten recently. The alternative to temporary hunger is permanently stronger pleasing taste, which would cause too much eating. Eating would always be better than sex.
Sensory Triggers
Hunger is triggered when you need food.
Cravings are triggered when you need a particular nutrient. In war-torn Germany, pregnant women craved plaster. Their unborn children were depleting their calcium levels. Milk, their main source of calcium, was scarce. Plaster, which contains calcium, was abundant thanks to the Allied bombing of civilians.
Thirst is triggered when you need water. You become thirsty when you do not consume enough water with your food.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is triggered when you need vitamin D. SAD is most prevalent in northern latitudes during March, when the sun’s rays have been oblique for a few months. Canadians refer to this feeling as cabin fever.
Mental Effect
Survival coercions vary with time. The longer a coercion has been triggered, the stronger the negative effect. The longer you have been hungry, the stronger your hunger feels.
Survival coercions grow stronger as necessary to ensure eating or drinking. As your hunger or thirst grows stronger, you are more motivated to overcome obstacles to eating or drinking.
Sensory Stops
Survival coercions are stopped by consuming food or water. Hunger is stopped by eating food. Cravings are stopped by eating a particular nutrient. Thirst is stopped by drinking water. SAD is stopped by going outside on a sunny day.
Survival coercions grow stronger as necessary to ensure eating or drinking. As your hunger or thirst grows stronger, you are more motivated to overcome obstacles to eating or drinking.
Sensory Stops
Survival coercions are stopped by consuming food or water. Hunger is stopped by eating food. Cravings are stopped by eating a particular nutrient. Thirst is stopped by drinking water. SAD is stopped by going outside on a sunny day.
Happiness Dissected is a more practical version of The Origin of Emotions.
