# Supernormal Stimuli

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{{Short description|2010 book by Deirdre Barrett}}
{{Infobox book
| name          = Supernormal Stimuli
| image         = Supernormal Stimuli cover.jpg
| caption       = 
| author        = [Deirdre Barrett](/source/Deirdre_Barrett)
| illustrator   = 
| cover_artist  = 
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| subject       = 
| publisher     = [W. W. Norton & Company](/source/W._W._Norton_%26_Company)
| pub_date      = 2010
| media_type    = 
| pages         = 224 
| isbn          = 978-0393068481
| preceded_by   = 
| followed_by   = 
}}
'''''Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose''''' is a book by [Deirdre Barrett](/source/Deirdre_Barrett) published by [W. W. Norton & Company](/source/W._W._Norton_%26_Company) in 2010. Barrett is a psychologist on the faculty of Harvard Medical School.  The book argues that human instincts for food, sex, and territorial protection evolved for life on the [savannah](/source/savannah) 10,000 years ago, not for today's densely populated technological world. Our instincts have not had time to adapt to the rapid changes of modern life.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/28779/title/Supernormal-Stimuli/|title=Supernormal Stimuli|website=The Scientist}}</ref>
The book takes its title from [Nikolaas Tinbergen](/source/Nikolaas_Tinbergen)'s concept in [ethology](/source/ethology) of the [supernormal stimulus](/source/supernormal_stimulus), the phenomena by which insects, birds, and fish in his experiments could be lured by a dummy object which exaggerated one or more characteristic of the natural stimulus object such as giant brilliant blue plaster eggs which birds preferred to sit on in preference to their own.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/03/playing-on-our-instincts/|title=Playing on our instincts|date=18 March 2010|publisher=}}</ref> Barrett extends the concept to humans and outlines how supernormal stimuli are a driving force behind today's most pressing problems, including [modern warfare](/source/modern_warfare), [obesity](/source/obesity) and other fitness problems, while also explaining the appeal of [television](/source/television), [video game](/source/video_game)s, and [pornography](/source/pornography) as social outlets.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Barrett |first=Deirdre |date=May 7, 2015 |title=Your mind is a victim of Stone Age instincts |url=https://www.wired.com/story/stone-age-mind/ |access-date=March 5, 2025 |magazine=Wired UK |publisher=}}</ref>

==Contents==

# Supernormal Stimuli—What Are They?
# Making the Ordinary Seem Strange
# Sex for Dummies
# Too Cute
# Foraging in the Food Courts
# Defending Home, Hearth, and Hedgefund
# From Shakespeare to Survivor: Entertainment as Vicarious Socializing
# Intellectual Pursuits as Supernormal Stimuli
# Conclusion: Get Off the Plaster Egg

==Reception==
The ''[Wall Street Journal](/source/Wall_Street_Journal)'' considered it "timely", but faulted Barrett for not "weigh(ing) the costs of supernormal stimuli against their often substantial benefits."<ref>{{cite news | last=Akst |first=Daniel |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704431404575068251903053116 | title=Too Much Of a Good Thing | newspaper=[The Wall Street Journal](/source/The_Wall_Street_Journal) | date=25 February 2010}}</ref>

==References==
<references/>

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite web |last=Graham |first=Paul |date=July 2010 |title=The acceleration of addictiveness |url=http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html}}
{{refend}}

Category:Books about evolutionary psychology
Category:2010 non-fiction books
Category:English-language non-fiction books

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