If you've ever tried a digital detox or a calorie-controlled diet, you'll know the battle between willpower and temptation. Society often frames this as weakness, but Danish biotech researcher Nicklas Brendborg argues it is our biology being manipulated. His upcoming book, Super Stimulated, explores 'supernormal stimuli' – exaggerations of what animals are naturally attracted to.
The term was coined by Dutch scientist Nikolaas Tinbergen, who showed that birds preferred fake eggs painted in bright, exaggerated colours over their own real eggs. Brendborg explains that birds evolved to prefer bigger, brighter eggs because they signal female health, but nature limits egg size and colour. Without a 'ceiling' to this impulse, we can trick them. Similarly, humans have evolved preferences that are now hijacked by modern technology.
Take sweets: we evolved to like sweet tastes because they indicated ripe, non-poisonous fruit in nature. But there was never a need to develop a limit, as natural sweetness has boundaries. Now, processed strawberry sweets can be ten times sweeter than wild strawberries, leading to unhealthy choices. Brendborg notes that even savoury ultra-processed foods contain added sugar to exploit this.
The problem extends beyond food. Pornography amplifies natural sexual appetite, drugs provide shortcuts to euphoria, and smartphones use bright colours – which in nature signal ripe berries – to attract attention. Social media warps our desire for social connection by offering an 'enhanced' version. These superstimuli contribute to the obesity crisis, with two-thirds of British adults overweight.
Brendborg suggests that acknowledging these biological tricks can help us understand why we succumb, without blaming ourselves for lack of willpower.
