The 4 Simple Signs That Something Is Dangerously Addictive (And Why P*rn is The Most Dangerous Drug)

2 years ago. I’m at the airport waiting for my flight to Spain. Bored.

I decide to walk 2 minutes to buy some food.

Between 48 options, I decide on Pringles (I love it too much).

They have 2 packages. 40g for 2 euros. Or 200g for 3 euros.

“200g it is!”

I go back to my gate, sit down, open the package, and eat until there’s nothing left. I even lick the salt inside.

4 things made Pringles (and all junk food) addictive.

Let’s go over each of them

1. It’s an exaggerated version of something humans want.

At the airport, I could’ve picked fresh fruit (hahaha)

I didn’t. I chose the exaggerated version of food. Deep fried and with too much salt.

And companies know humans prefer the unnatural version.

Why?

Because you can’t find carbs + salt + fat in the same food. It doesn’t exist in nature. Only in junk food.

If something is better than the natural version, it’s the first sign you can get addicted to it.

2. It’s easily available everywhere.

I had to walk 2 minutes to buy junk food.

Unless you’re in Nowhere, Alaska, you’re also 2 minutes away from it.

• A McDonald’s down the road.
• 517 different restaurants on Uber Eats.
• A supermarket with 3 aisles of frozen pizza.

In nature, there’s scarcitiy. In modern society, not so much.

When you have access to too much of something that feels good, getting addicted isn’t hard.

3. You have too many options to choose from

I had to choose between 48 different junk food options.

The same thing happens when you’re at the supermarket. Or scrolling through Uber Eats. Too many choices.

Your brain can’t deal with too many choices. All options seem too good. And the ones you haven’t tried? Even better.

Endless novelty is a sure way to make something addictive.

4. You can easily consume too much

I ate the entire tub of Pringles. That’s about 1,000kcal.

Could I have eaten the same amount of calories of broccoli?

No. Why? Because that’s about 3kg of broccoli!

It’s almost impossible to consume too much of natural things. But artificial things don’t have that problem.

When you can consume something without a limit, you can easily consume too much (and get addicted).

P*rn is the most dangerous drug

Porn. Junk food. Video games. Social media.

All very addictive. That’s because:

1. It’s an exaggerated version of what humans like
2. It’s everywhere
3. It has so much novelty your brain keeps wanting more
4. It’s very easy to consume too much of it

But why is porn the most addictive?

Humans evolved to seek mainly 2 things:

1. Food
2. Sex

Food is very addictive (40% of global population is fat). But food has friction points:

• You have to spend money to get it.
• There’s a limit to how much you can eat

P*rn is different.

• There’s no limit to the exaggeration. (Self-explanatory)
• There’s no friction to get it. You pick your phone. Google it. And consume it. For free.
• There’s too much novelty. There is a p*rn category for every thing imaginable (and even what you can’t imagine)
• There’s no limit to how much you can consume of it. You can watch p*rn 8 hours straight with a single 2-minute bathroom break.

Summary

Next time you’re not sure if something can be addictive, keep these 4 things in mind:

1. It’s an exaggerated version of something humans want.
2. It’s easily available everywhere.
3. You have too many options to choose from
4. You can easily consume too much

If you want to know more about addiction, you can grab my book summary of Your Brain On Porn here.