Facebook Founder Admits Exploiting Human Psychology

Facebook exploits a 'vulnerability in human psychology', a founding president of the social media network has claimed.

09:30 06 March 2018

Sean Parker, the 38-year-old founding president of Facebook, admitted that the architects of the social media network have exploited a “vulnerability in human psychology” so we’ll become hooked. Parker, who resigned in 2005, explained that the site is designed to “give you a little dopamine hit” whenever someone likes or comments on your post or photographs.

 

Dopamine is one of the major neurotransmitters that relate to the reward we receive from an action. It is strongly associated with desire, ambition, addition and even sex drive. It inspires us to take actions to meet our needs and desires by anticipating how we will feel after they’re met.

 

Wolfram Schultz, a professor of neuroscience at Cambridge University, said: “We found a signal in the brain that explains our most profound behaviours, in which every one of us is engaged constantly. I can see why the public has become interested.”

 

“These unnaturally large rewards are not filtered in the brain – they go directly into the brain and overstimulate, which can generate addiction,” explains Shultz. “When that happens, we lose our willpower. Evolution has not prepared our brains for these drugs, so they become overwhelmed and screwed up. We are abusing a useful and necessary system. We shouldn’t do it, even though we can.