Bandits No More

In their book Look Again, Sharot & Sunstein write:

The principle is simple: when something surprising or unexpected happens, your brain will respond strongly. But when everything is predictable, your brain will respond less, and sometimes not at all. Like the front page of a daily newspaper, your brain cares about what recently changed, not about what remained the same. This is because to survive, your brain must prioritize what is new and different: the sudden smell of smoke, a ravenous lion running your way, or an attractive potential mate passing by. To make the new and unexpected stand out, your brain filters out the old and expected.

If one is a politician, entertainer, or in some other position where one takes it to be one’s job to get and hold the attention of others, understanding of habituation is useful. To keep that attention one desires one will have to keep doing new things.