Question 1

Your attention system is a foraging system, optimized to leave quickly in rich environments.

Accepted Answer

Platt explains that attention follows the same principles as animal foraging (the Marginal Value Theorem). In poor environments (like early dial-up internet), you stay longer with one information source; in rich environments (high-speed internet, multiple devices, infinite feeds) you are designed to rapidly switch—cycling between apps, tabs, and screens. This isn’t a moral failure; it’s evolutionarily appropriate behavior in an unnaturally rich information environment. To focus better, you must deliberately make the environment “poorer” (fewer devices, notifications off, phone out of the room).

Question 2

Where you put your eyes shapes the size and style of your mental focus.

Accepted Answer

Humans are highly visual, and the spatial properties of what we look at (tight vs. dispersed) change the “aperture” of attention and cognitive style. Platt cites work showing that doing visual foraging on widely scattered targets pushes people into more exploratory, creative modes, while focusing on dense, clustered targets promotes tighter, more focused cognition. Related studies show that having students stare at a fixation point before cognitive work improves performance. Practically: you can use narrow, fixed gaze to prime deep focus, and panoramic/horizon viewing to relax and promote broader, more creative thinking.

Question 3

Phones and unseen options silently tax working memory and self-control.

Accepted Answer

Even when your phone is face down or in your bag, your brain keeps it in the option set; it's 'under the hood' in your foraging calculations. Studies show working memory is worst when the phone is on the desk, slightly better when it’s in the room but away, and significantly better when it’s in another room. Platt interprets this as the brain constantly evaluating potential alternative “patches” (notifications, social media) even when you think you’re focused. A powerful maneuver to improve deep work is to remove phones and parallel devices entirely from the immediate environment during focus blocks.

Question 4

Our valuation of objects and brands is hijacked by social cues: status and sex.

Accepted Answer

In Platt’s famous "monkey porn" studies, male macaques gave up juice to view female perineums and dominant male faces, but had to be overpaid to view subordinate males—quantifying the value of status and sexual cues. Humans did an analogous task with HotOrNot images and money: men gave up real money, waited longer, and worked harder to see highly-rated women; reward circuits lit up accordingly. When brand logos are paired with high-status or sexy images, both monkeys and humans come to value those brands more, even when the actual payoff is identical. This shows how celebrity endorsements, sexy imagery, and status associations directly plug into our ancient valuation machinery.

Question 5

Your brain keeps an invisible social ledger of who owes whom what.

Accepted Answer

Using wireless recordings in freely interacting monkeys, Platt’s lab showed that the brain tracks precise grooming “accounts” between individuals—how much each has given and received over minutes, days, even weeks—across prefrontal and temporal cortices. These neural accounts match observed equitable grooming patterns: debts can be repaid later, and the values are asymmetric when power differentials exist (e.g., many minutes grooming an alpha might be “worth” one future rescue). Analogously, humans track text replies, favors, and affection with similar implicit ledgers, which influence feelings of fairness, betrayal, and obligation in relationships and teams.

How to Make Better Decisions | Dr. Michael Platt

Hormones, Hierarchies, and Attention: The Hidden Drivers of Decisions

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