Do not mix or the hedonic escalation effect. A single dopamine trigger often has a mild impact by itself. However, a combination of triggers can create the effect of a "sum of pleasure" or "hedonic escalation," where the combined impact becomes intense, leading to uncontrolled consumption. This could involve certain pastimes (like binge-watching a series with alcohol and pizza) or specific recipes (such as salted caramel), and so on.
How does it work?
We can get satiated with one or two triggers when they’re not constantly available. For example, fruits and honey are only accessible in autumn, fruits start sour and later turn sweet, and meat is fatty. This is why we quickly become oversaturated when we eat just one ingredient: pure sugar, caffeine, or salt. But carefully crafted combinations break this natural satiety. When industries combine many unpredictably strange, stimulating ingredients into a single product, it creates the effect of "sum of pleasure" or "hedonic escalation."
Social media algorithms also combine odd triggers (like music, faces, motion, and words) to extract every last drop of dopamine from an already drained brain, emptying it until there’s no will to live left. Such combinations give rise to strange super-stimuli of sexual attraction or an idealized image of an enemy—these principles apply in every aspect of life.
Take the familiar Coca-Cola and let’s examine its addictive ingredients one by one.
1. Sugar.
106 grams per liter. Enough said about liquid sugar, let’s move on.
2. Caffeine.
96 mg per liter. How much is this? A cup of black tea has 40 mg.
3. Caramel coloring.
Caramel as a food additive is produced by heating sugar. It adds intense color and aroma, found in beer, condensed milk, soy sauce, etc. Our brain loves anything roasted, so the smell of roasted sugar increases appetite, making caramel coloring not just a dye.
4. Phosphoric acid.
This acid serves two primary purposes: it masks the sugar; without acid, you couldn’t drink a liter of 10% sugar solution. Acidic juices completely hide excessive sweetness, prompting overconsumption. A slight acidity enhances taste, making the product more appealing and desirable.
5. Carbonation. Carbonated water increases the hunger hormone ghrelin by 50% in people, making neurons more sensitive to dopamine.
6. Sodium.
A liter of cola contains 100 mg of sodium, comparable to a pinch of salt (150 mg). Adding salt to any food enhances overconsumption, and when combined with sugar, it boosts addictive properties. Furthermore, a bit of salt increases sensitivity to sugar.
7. Marketing and advertising.
Product taste depends on what we see. Studies show that different labels on the same wine bottle trigger different dopamine responses in tasters. Coca-Cola’s intensely aggressive marketing is best illustrated by a single number: by age 18, the average American has seen the Coke brand 10 million times.
Hedonic escalation: When food just tastes better and better. C Crolic, C Janiszewski. Journal of Consumer Research 43 (3), 388-406, 2016.
The evolution of sour taste Proc Biol Sci 2022 Feb 9;289(1968):20211918. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1918
Carbon dioxide in carbonated beverages induces ghrelin release and increased food consumption in male rats: Implications on the onset of obesity Obes Res Clin Pract 2017 Sep-Oct;11(5):534-543.