Question: why do we like some things but not like other things?

James Munro answered on 6 Mar 2019:

Hey there,

Thanks for the question! Three things that make us like some things and not others are homeostasis, conditioning and genetics.

Our bodies and our minds like to be in the middle most of the time. The state of being in the middle is called “homeostasis”. For example, you don’t like to be too hot or too cold all the time, but like to be somewhere in the middle. Yes, sometimes you want to be super hot on a summer holiday, but if you were like that all the time you would be upset. You might love parties but if you were partying all the time you would soon want to have some time alone. Most of the time we want a bit of social stuff, but not too much or too little. Same with salt on your food, or being cuddled, or learning new things. Everyone has a different “middle” so we are all different, but essentially, homeostasis means we like being in our own middle, and dislike spending too long out of it.

Conditioning is a form of learning where we link things together. The most famous example of this is called Pavlov’s dogs, who learned that every time a bell was rung they would get fed. So the dogs started getting hungry whenever they heard a bell – even if there was no food https://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html Even though you might not realise it, you have been conditioned to like many things that others might not. So you might like dogs because you had a nice one when you were a toddler, but you might dislike broccoli because your sibling would make a disgusted face whenever they saw it. It is hard to know how much of an impact conditioning has on our lives. Does it help us choose romantic partners? Does it tell us what jobs we like and don’t like? Most of us don’t like pain, but we learn this by experiencing it. If you touch a hot piece of metal, you will so strnogly link the hot metal with the feeling of pain that you will likely never do it again your whole life.

Genetics are our biological instructions which we get from our parents, and they got from their parents and so on. Genetics tells us the colour of our eyes and whether we will get tall if we have enough food and exercise or whether we will be short no matter what. Genetics also has huge importance for our brain development – will we be left or right handed, will we be more attracted to men or women or both or neither. It is really likely that genetics influence what we like and don’t like.

I hope that helps answer your question 🙂