Neophilia - Exuberance for Novelty

Life is all about change, but for some people, that change is not very pleasant. Psychology tends to label attractions to situations as "philias'. It may sounds like dreaded disease, someone who is a neophiliac, simply craves anything that's new -Photo by Carlo Bright on Unsplash

Do I simply obsessed with everything that's new, modern or hype ? Do I make decisions quickly based on incomplete information ? Do I short tempered ? Am I easily bored ? If I can't stop staring everything that's new, unknown and addictively attractive and I don't feel good if I am not constantly updated on everything that's going on around the world.
Well if the above symptoms suits me, then I might be suffering from a new era illness called Neophilia.

 

Overview

In a 2013 Study by JAMA - Mortality for Publicly Reported Conditions and Overall Hospital Mortality Rates - focused that the 30-day mortality among high-risk acute care patients was 30% lower when the top doctors were out of town, as when they were away at conferences, leaving more junior doctors in charge. The authors explained that most errors doctors make are connected to a tendency to form opinions quickly, based on prior experience, but in cases that are not routine, that can be misleading - the expert doctors may miss important aspects of the problem that are not consistent with their initial analysis. So a dose of  inexperience can be beneficial. The same is true for eccentricity of childishness.

Life is all about change, but for some people, that change is not very pleasant. Psychology tends to label attractions to situations as "philias'. It may sounds like dreaded disease, someone who is a neophiliac, simply craves anything that's new.. In her survey of the recent research New : Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change the journalist Winifred Gallagher argues that Neophilia has always been quintessential human survival skill, whether adapting to climate change on the ancestral African Savanna  or coping with latest digital toy from Silicon Valley. The concept of being attracted to the new has a long history in psychology.
Ms Gallagher says.

Nothing reveals your personality more succinctly than your characteristic emotional reaction to novelty and change over time and access many situations. It's also the most behavioral difference among individuals.

Drawing on the work of Dr. Cloinger and other personality researchers, she classifies people as neophobes, neophiles and the most extreme neophiliacs

Ms Gallagher says in an interview with New York Times,

Although we are neophilic species, as individuals we differ in our reactions to novelty, because a population's survival is enhanced by some adventurers who explore for new resources and worriers who are attuned to the risks involved.

Evolution

Modern psychology literature speaks of the human attraction to novelty and change Psychologists have coined it neophilia. It is what encouraged our prehistoric ancestors to explore and experiment even when their lives were fine. Evolution favored that behavior because it led to the discovery of alternate food and water sources, and the invention of new hunting methods and tools, all of  which became vital when times changed for the worse. Scientists have identified a gene associated with the novelty-seeking tendency, DRD4, affecting the way our brains respond to the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is important in the brain's motivational circuitry.
         

Flexible Thinking

One of the abilities most important to neophilic thinking also called elastic thinking, is the power to relax one's mind, to let our guard down.

Photo by Patrick Schneider on Unsplash

Being focused is important in rational and logical thinking, but it means our filters are turned up high. so our ideas may have a narrow range, and tend to be conventional. Our focus may also impede any tendency to question the assumptions behind whatever issue we are considering. On the other hand, when our mind is relaxed, we can play with idea of new paradigm. We are not worried about why our ideas might be wrong. We are not worried about failure. We can experiment. Our mind can wander to new territory and stumble upon novel ideas, and new ways of looking at things.

That is why it is often fruitful to think intensely about an issue, and then taking a break in which we engage in a mild physical activity, but are not mentally focused; as when jogging , or in the shower. Similarly, researchers have found that quietly pondering an issue when we are intellectually exhausted, at the end of the day, can allow original ideas, which might not otherwise surface, to get through.
       

Adjusting External Conditions

One can also cultivate insight by adjusting one's external conditions. Studies show that sitting in a  darkened room, or closing our eyes, can widen our perspective; so can expansive surroundings, ever high ceilings. Low ceilings, narrow corridors, and windowless offices have the opposite effect. And a well-lit room can make it difficult to ignore objects in our surroundings that stimulate mundane thoughts, showing aside imaginative musings generated by our mind.

Being able to think without any time pressure is also important when striving for insight, because if we have to start on something else soon, our awareness of that can pull our mind back to the external world.

Just as important, interruptions are deadly. A short phone call, email or even a text message can redirect our attention and thoughts. Even the thought that some message may be awaiting, we can have same effect.

Some Arguments on Neophilia

The future belongs to the neophiliac mind. This is the argument behind the recent best-selling book Elastic by Leonard Mlodinow, which examines the swirl of change we find ourselves living through, and the ways of thinking best suited to it. We all have what is needed for elastic thinking - to a greater extent, perhaps, than we realize. It's just a matter of recognizing the needed skills, Mlondnow argues, and nurturing them.

However, here the important point of holding fast and being steady in the search for truth comes in, which must be a sine-qua-non of nurturing elastic thinking skills. Vedanta calls this holding fast to the search of truth as Ista , an anthropomorphic representation of the ideal. The modern thinkers, while they are doing an amazing job in studying the dynamics of human thinking and working, are yet to recognize the vital contribution of the Ideal on human endeavors.
                                      
 

Final Thoughts

A neophile is distinct from a revolutionary in that anyone might become revolutionary if pushed far enough by the reigning authorities or social norms, where as neophiles are revolutionary by nature. Their intellectual abhorrence of tradition and repetition usually bemoans a deeper emotional need for constant novelty and change. The meaning of neophile approaches and is not mutually exclusive to term visionary, but differs in that a neophile activity seeks first-hand experience of novelty rather than merely pontificating about it.       

The genetic variations affect the brain's regulation of dopamine. The variations have been linked to faster reaction times, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a higher penchant for novelty-seeking and risk-taking.

It is but only a part of the story. Researchers have found that people's tendency for novelty-seeking also depends on their upbringing, on the local culture and on their stage of life. However it is also noted that the urge of novelty-seeking drops with age.

Winifred Gallagher

In the pre-industrial cultures, curiosity was sometimes considered a vice, and people didn't expect constant stimulation. 'Boredom' did not come into popular use until the 19th century.
Today it's the ultimate insult --boring-- among teenagers perpetually scanning screens for something new. Their neophilia may be an essential skill, but it can also be problematic in various ways of life. Ms Gallagher warns

We now consume about 100,000 words each day from various media, which is a whopping 350 percent increase, measured in bytes, over what we handled back in 1980. Neophilia spurs us to adjust and explore and create technology and art, but at the extreme it can fuel a chronic restlessness and distraction.            

According to  Leonard Mlodinow,

Elastic thinking comes naturally to all humans, but one way it may be inhibited is through another power exercised by our brain, the ability to ignore inappropriate urges and tune out "crazy" ideas. The human does not act like a single information processor grinding through an algorithm on its way to solving problem. Instead, it acts as a set of interacting and competing systems.

Leonard Mlodinow.

That is why scientists often speak of distinctions such as conscious/unconscious, reason/emotion or right-brain/left-brain. When it comes to elastic thinking, those structures that generate new ideas must compete with other structures that censor them. We need the later because our minds are so amazingly prolific that without some filter, we would be unable to focus, and down in our own thoughts.  




Ms Gallagher advises neophiles to be selective in their targets.

Don't go wide and shallow into useless trivia. Use your neophilia to go deep into subjects that are important to you.   

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