Talking about ourselves—whether in a personal conversation or
through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter—triggers
the same sensation of pleasure in the brain as food or money,
researchers reported Monday. About 40% of everyday speech is
devoted to telling others about what we feel or think. Now,
through five brain imaging and behavioral experiments, Harvard
University neuroscientists have uncovered the reason: It feels
so rewarding, at the level of brain cells and synapses, that we
can't help sharing our thoughts. "Self-disclosure is extra
rewarding," said Harvard neuroscientist Diana Tamir, who
conducted the experiments with Harvard colleague Jason Mitchell.
Their findings were published in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences. "People were even willing to forgo money in
order to talk about themselves," Ms. Tamir said. To assess
people's inclination for what the researchers call "self
disclosure," they conducted laboratory tests to see whether
people placed an unusually high value on