With the rapid pace of technology, have we been able to keep up with the new stimulation that is available? Some research suggests that certain things we enjoy today would be classified as supernormal stimuli, a term evolutionary biologists use to describe any stimulus that elicits a response stronger than the stimulus that evolved-even if it’s artificial.

What are supernomal stimuli?

Nikolaas Tinbergen, a Nobel Prize winning ethologist, is the father of the term supernormal stimuli

Junk food

The highly addictive nature of junk food is one of our generation’s great concerns-food is being engineered specifically to be more appealing than its natural counterparts.

What should you do?

Remember-everything in moderation

TV & Video Games

Television addiction may cause some users to elicit the signs of a behavioral addiction

Deciding What’s Normal

Avoid habituation

Pornography

Probably the most controversial of all modern stimuli, pornography has been described as insidious in nature because it might skew the otherwise normal activity of sex

The Internet

Psychologists are beginning to recognize that the internet may be an addictive outlet

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