Same Old World

3. Experiment with dope (as in dopamine).

Before moving on, it helps to add some psychoactive chemicals. Some people achieve social confidence only when they use alcohol or drugs. I can never remember to buy these things, but I always have a few mood-altering substances on hand – or rather, in my head – and so do you.

For example, dopamine increases when we face something unfamiliar and difficult: working a crossword puzzle, knitting a complicated sweater. Epinephrine is released when we sustain moderate exercise. When we take a chance (for example, by expressing an unpopular opinion or displaying something we’ve created), we produce more epinephrine. All these hormones can increase our confidence enough to help us release our old, supposedly protective thoughts and behaviors.

So once you’re used to unthinking your physical self-image, give yourself a little chemical boost to compensate for the emotional shields you’ll be dropping. Complete a challenging task, work out until you sweat a bit, take a risk that makes your heart speed up, or all three. You’ll feel more confident for several hours. Use that time for real-world experimentation.

With a head full of crumbling misperceptions and happy hormones, go out in public and pretend for, say, half an hour that you’re lovely enough to be loved. Now go to a coffee shop and have a tasty beverage.1

While James Flynn may be partly (or even largely) correct when he claims that the spread of scientific thinking in the First World population is the cause of the Flynn effect, I think he fails to realize that science has simultaneously become a new form of superstition for the masses. Thankfully the above-cited article can help to remind us how easily scientific concepts can be perverted.