New Stanford Medicine faculty member Neir Eshel, an assistant professor of psychiatry, alerted us to a paper, eventually published Nov. 27 in Neuron, describing his team’s methodical study of the critical–and surprising–role of dopamine. This “do it again, do it some more” brain chemical has been linked to pleasure, learning, and habit formation. It also plays a role in our overvaluation of what economists call “sunk costs”: the time, money, effort, and/or suffering that we’ve put into ownership, experience, or our own self-esteem. Eshel wondered whether we might find his study newsworthy. We were strongly inclined to put a spotlight on this young researcher, with whom our office hadn’t communicated before. But what was the best way to do that? Perhaps not by means of a standard news release but rather by a tongue-in-cheek feature. This approach seemed to work.
From the Judges
This piece was insightful and well researched and contributed to the body of knowledge in the field of behavioral psychology. We appreciated how the writer tied research to a real example and did an impressive job of explaining the research for average readers.
