I rejoiced at this latest news. It’s both warm blanket and cuddly toy – for nerds.
The journal Scientific American published an essay Sunday titled “The Science of Nerdiness: It’s a neurotransmitter thing.”
Translation: Nerdiness is rooted in science.
The essay highlights research positing that our bodies’ release of dopamine – sometimes called the feel-good molecule – does more than make us crave sugar, cocaine, sex and Facebook likes.
Dopamine arouses nerds to the appeal of “stimulating ideas,” the essay suggests, while turning unnerds on to “sex, drugs and money.”
How? The “nerd dopamine pathway” prompts us to wonder and explore, to imagine and to indulge in abstract thinking, all to make sense of the unknown.
Hear the unnerds hooting now: “Abstract thinking or sex? Haha! Hahahaha! Hahahahahahahahaha!!”
Perhaps the “personality neuroscientist” cited in the article sought only to justify his own nerdiness.
And that rupture you just felt in the atmosphere was my children erupting in guffaws.
“So what?” they’re howling. “You’re still a nerd!”
For you unnerds, here’s so what: Nerds needed this news, because … duh-uh! It’s a neurotransmitter thing.
