Liking, wanting, and the incentive-sensitization theory of addiction
Berridge and Robinson set out the distinction this vault returns to constantly: wanting and liking are produced by different systems in the brain, even though the two words are used interchangeably in ordinary speech. Wanting, which they call incentive salience, is motivation, and it runs on large, robust circuitry involving dopamine. Liking, the actual pleasure taken in something, runs on much smaller and more fragile systems and does not depend on dopamine at all. The consequence is that the two can come apart. From this they build the incentive-sensitisation theory of addiction, whose claim is that addiction is an excessive amplification of wanting, triggered particularly by cues associated with the substance, without any matching amplification of pleasure. That is why a person can pursue something compulsively while reporting that they no longer enjoy it. This paper is their review of the evidence a quarter of a century after the theory was proposed, and it argues that support has continued to accumulate and that the account now extends to behavioural addictions as well as drugs.
Berridge and Robinson set out the distinction this vault returns to constantly: wanting and liking are produced by different systems in the brain, even though the two words are used interchangeably in ordinary speech. Wanting, which they call incentive salience, is motivation, and it runs on large, robust circuitry involving dopamine. Liking, the actual pleasure taken in something, runs on much smaller and more fragile systems and does not depend on dopamine at all. The consequence is that the two can come apart. From this they build the incentive-sensitisation theory of addiction, whose claim is that addiction is an excessive amplification of wanting, triggered particularly by cues associated with the substance, without any matching amplification of pleasure. That is why a person can pursue something compulsively while reporting that they no longer enjoy it. This paper is their review of the evidence a quarter of a century after the theory was proposed, and it argues that support has continued to accumulate and that the account now extends to behavioural addictions as well as drugs.
Written from the abstract, OpenAlex.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
Robinson, T. E. & Berridge, K. C. Incentive-sensitisation work on the wanting/liking dissociation. See the vault note Wanting vs Liking for the citation trail.
Where we use it
- 2,500 Years, One Good Study, Why We Exist / Endure
Reliability of this reference
The link below is the right work, with one detail that does not line up. The citation names a body of work rather than one paper. This is the authors' own review stating the wanting and liking dissociation most directly. Author order is Berridge and Robinson, reversed from the citation. Worth opening before quoting a figure from it.
The source
https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000059
DOI: 10.1037/amp0000059