New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change

by Winifred Gallagher

Overview

Why are we attuned to the latest headline, diet craze, smartphone, fashion statement? Why do we relish a change of scene, eye attractive strangers, develop new interests?

How did Homo sapiens survive near-extinction during an environmental crisis eighty thousand years ago, while close cousins very like us have died out?

Why is your characteristic reaction to novelty and change the key to your whole personality?

Why do we enjoy inexpensive pleasures, like fresh flowers or great chocolate, more than costly comforts, like cars or appliances?

How can a species genetically geared to engage with novelty cope in a world that increasingly bombards us with it?

Follow a crawling baby around and you’ll see that right from the beginning, nothing excites us more than something new and different. Our unique human brains are biologically primed to engage with and even generate novelty, from our ancestors’ first bow and arrow to the latest tablet computer. This “neophilia” has enabled us to thrive in a world of cataclysmic change, but now, we confront an unprecedented deluge of new things, from products to information, which has quadrupled in the past thirty years and shows no sign of slowing. To prevent our great strength from becoming a weakness in today’s fast-paced world, we must reconnect with neophilia’s grand evolutionary purpose: to help us learn, create, and adapt to new things that have real value and dismiss the rest as distractions.

In New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change, Winifred Gallagher, acclaimed behavioral science writer and author of Rapt, takes us to the cutting-edge laboratories and ancient archeological sites where scientists explore our special affinity for novelty and change. Although no other species can rival our capacity to explore and experiment with the new, we individuals vary in how we balance the conflicting needs to avoid risk and approach rewards. Most of us are moderate “neophiles,” but some 15 percent of us are diehard “neophiliacs,” who have an innate passion for new experiences, and another 15 percent are cautious “neophobes,” who try to steer clear of them — a 1-5-1 ratio that benefits the group’s well-being. Wherever you sit on the continuum, New shows you how to use this special human gift to navigate more skillfully through our rapidly changing world by focusing on the new things that really matter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594203206
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/29/2011
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.82(w) x 8.56(h) x 0.98(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Winifred Gallagher's books include Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, House Thinking, Just the Way You Are (a New York Times Notable Book), Working on God, and The Power of Place. She has written for numerous publications, such as Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. She lives in Manhattan and Dubois, Wyoming.

Table of Contents

Introduction: What's New? 1

Part I Neophilia and Us

1 How We Became Who We Are 15

2 Surprise Detector 29

3 Approach, Avoid, or Maybe 44

Part II Neophilia and You

4 You Meet New 59

5 The Alchemy of Anticipation 80

6 Novelty and Nurture 100

7 Culture, Curiosity, and Boredom 121

8 The Ever-New Frontier 132

Part III Neophilia Today

9 The Really New Age 153

10 Novelty Machines: For Better and Worse 171

11 Caution Ahead: Silly, Unfocused, and Hooked? 189

12 Navigating with Neophilia 207

Acknowledgments 233

Bibliography, Suggested Readings, and Notes 235

Index 247

What People are Saying About This

Richard Restak

If someone refers to you as a neophile, you should be flattered, according to Winifred Gallagher in this fascinating and totally original sequel to her earlier gem Rapt. We should all be neophiles, and Gallagher shows us how we can enjoyably progress from a seeker to a connoisseur of everything new. By following her sage counsel you'll fine-tune your cognitive function, improve your quality of life, and enhance your survival. (Richard Restak, author of Think Smart and The Playful Brain)

From the Publisher

“Considering experiences that range from video games to consumer food preferences, this book is an engaging, enjoyable read… An accessible, well-researched work that crosses a variety of disciplines and will satisfy scientifically curious readers. It will appeal to those who enjoy Stephen Jay Gould and Oliver Sacks.” –Library Journal

“It’s difficult to categorize Gallagher’s exuberant survey through so many areas of interest, but she proves her point: curiosity about and hunger for the new can certainly take you to many fascinating places.” --BookList

“A bright look at our fascination with the new and different… [Gallagher]… notes neophilia will undoubtedly prove valuable in a future where the only certainly is constant change. Engaging and cautionary.” --Kirkus

Ian Tattersall

Nothing makes Homo sapiens more singular than its mania for the new. And if you feel you're drowning in today's bewildering choice of new technologies and attitudes, there's nowhere better to turn for perspective than to Winifred Gallagher's fascinating new exploration of human neophilia. (Ian Tattersall, Curator Emeritus, American Museum of Natural History)

Editorial Reviews

Anxiety over newness is at least as hoary as Future Shock, and there’s not much new to say about it, to judge by this scattered social think-piece. Journalist Gallagher (Just the Way You Are) takes a lightly scientific approach. She plumbs the evolutionary advantages of trying new things, warns that the dopamine jolts the brain emits to welcome stimulating novelties make us prey to video games and drug dealers, and classifies everyone according to their genetic and cultural predispositions to approach or avoid unfamiliar phenomena. (She is fascinated with the life stories of “neophiliacs,” such as astronauts, while disdaining “neophobes”—though they have their virtues—as evolutionary dead ends fit to be accountants.) She cannily occupies the sweet spot between celebrating today’s telecom marvels, reality shows, and social networking sites as an unprecedented eruption of creative newness and fretting that the flood of novel entertainments and “junk information” will make us distracted, shallow, and isolated. Gallagher is a fluent writer, and many of her riffs, like a brief history of boredom, sparkle. Still, novelty seeking makes a tenuous principle for analyzing personal and social psychology—is newness more significant now than in the age of Edison and the Wright brothers?—and one that feels old hat. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"It's difficult to categorize Gallagher's exuberant survey through so many areas of interest, but she proves her point: curiosity about and hunger for the new can certainly take you to many fascinating places."

BOOKLIST

Have you ever wondered why humans, as a species, are so attracted to novel experiences? Gallagher (House Thinking: A Room-by-Room Look at How We Live) brings her talents to the topic of neophilia—the love of novelty. She suggests that, from an evolutionary standpoint, attention to change, interest in new experiences, and adaptability are hallmarks of our species. She also explores individual behaviors concerning novelty and risk-taking and investigates the ways that society and environment affect one's attitude toward novelty. Considering experiences that range from video games to consumer food preferences, this book is an engaging, enjoyable read. The section that treats the complex interaction of nature and nurture as related to neophilia is particularly interesting. VERDICT An accessible, well-researched work that crosses a variety of disciplines and will satisfy scientifically curious readers. It will appeal to those who enjoy Stephen Jay Gould and Oliver Sacks.—Carla H. Lee, Univ. of Virginia Lib., Charlottesville

Library Journal

A bright look at our fascination with the new and different. Gallagher (Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, 2009, etc.) examines how we deal with the ever-increasing amount of novelty and rate of change in our lives. Since the 18th century, when the technology of the Industrial Revolution converged with the ideas of the Enlightenment, the new and novel have played a soaring role in Western society. "We already crunch four times more data--e-mail, tweets, searches, music, video, and traditional media--that we did just 30 years ago," writes the author, "and this deluge shows no signs of slackening." Given our affinity for novelty, we are in danger of becoming so distracted by trivial yet instantly gratifying new things that we no longer focus selectively on the important things that help us adapt to change. We must learn to manage our neophilia, or affinity for novelty. Drawing on studies and interviews with social scientists and others, the author offers evidence that the brain is actually a "novelty-seeking machine" and that about 25 percent of Westerners of European descent have a gene linked to robust novelty seeking. While the author's discussion of our penchant for the gratifying novelty of the most trivial matters will be familiar to many readers, she offers many interesting observations: taking a short break during sex and other pleasurable activities allows you to re-experience the activity's novel delights, and society strongly influences whether neophilia is a vice or a virtue (with early Christianity discouraging an enquiring mind, and the Age of Reason encouraging it). The information age, begun in the 1960s, brought better, easier access to more kinds of data; the digital revolution has taken the novelty boom up a notch, leaving many chronically distracted and less able to engage in deep thought. Gallagher points to the age-old remedy of moderation and notes neophilia will undoubtedly prove valuable in a future where the only certainly is constant change. Engaging and cautionary.

Kirkus Reviews

Considering experiences that range from video games to consumer food preferences, this book is an engaging, enjoyable read… An accessible, well-researched work that crosses a variety of disciplines and will satisfy scientifically curious readers. It will appeal to those who enjoy Stephen Jay Gould and Oliver Sacks.”  –Library Journal

“It’s difficult to categorize Gallagher’s exuberant survey through so many areas of interest, but she proves her point: curiosity about and hunger for the new can certainly take you to many fascinating places.” —BookList

“A bright look at our fascination with the new and different… [Gallagher]… notes neophilia will undoubtedly prove valuable in a future where the only certainly is constant change. Engaging and cautionary.” —Kirkus

From the Publisher

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