Dollars for Dopamine
The dopamine dealers are everywhere. Here's how to shop smart.
Updated April 16, 2026 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
Psst. Hey. Come here. I've got something you're going to love. Personalized. Potent. Guaranteed to make you feel good, at least for a little while. First one's free.
You've probably accepted that offer a dozen times today without realizing it. The product is dopamine , and the dealers are everywhere: Pinging your work friend to make fun of the speaker during a Teams town hall. Placing a five-dollar live bet on Messi to score the next goal. Letting your kid buy a Roblox skin if they make their bed. These are product features designed, tested, and shipped to sell you more dopamine per second.
And the latest dealer may be the scariest one yet.
Artificial intelligence (AI) discovers your specific reward pattern and adjusts in real time. Virtual companions and assistants figure out what makes you feel smart, understood, and validated. They reformulate around your individual brain chemistry, and they're designed to be delicious for your brain's dopamine receptors.
As I teach workshops for corporate clients around the world, I feel the pressure to drip more and more dopamine into my sessions. Bigger and brighter pictures on the slides. Fewer and fewer words. Shorter and shorter sessions. Less time for deep reflection, more pressure for punchy takeaways. Gamify it!
Psychologists have identified two distinct ways of buying in the dopamine market.
Most people are somewhere on a spectrum between these two. But you know which way you lean. You feel it every time your phone buzzes.
If you have attention -deficit/hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD ), your reward system is running underpowered at baseline. Ordinary things don't register as interesting. The world feels beige. And that makes the marketplace's high-purity products almost irresistible, because they're the only things that break through. ADHD brains need more dopamine to get the same hit as neurotypical brains.
You can't train yourself into being a goal-tracker any more than you can train yourself out of ADHD. But you can change how you shop.
The dopamine dealers are everywhere, so learn to be a better shopper.
Sometimes you pay in dollars, and sometimes you pay in attention. Either way, know the price.
Colaizzi, J. M., Flagel, S. B., Joyner, M. A., Gearhardt, A. N., Stewart, J. L., & Paulus, M. P. (2020). Mapping sign-tracking and goal-tracking onto human behaviors. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews , 111, 84–94.
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Jake Breeden is a leadership expert who partners with companies to unlock high performance through workshops on influence, trust, psychological safety, team performance, innovation, and challenging the status quo.
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.