“What we really need isn‘t more advice — it’s how to actually become better. The key to becoming better is sustained behavioural change. How do you achieve that? This book gives you the answers to save yourself.”
— Peng Xiaoliu, bestselling author of “Onion Reading Method,” “Disrupting Mediocrity,” and “Let the Future Come Now”

★ A rat pressed a button 7,000 times in 12 hours, starving to death for brain stimulation — this classic experiment opens the book, revealing the neural mechanism behind why you can‘t stop scrolling. Freud spent 12 years addicted to cocaine before recognizing its harm — substance addiction is hard to break, but behavioural addiction is even harder.
★ Three core modules: understanding the difference between behavioural and substance addiction; six psychological mechanisms (trigger, onboarding, instant feedback, escalating challenges, incompleteness, social elements); and four practical tools (habits, micro-habits, environment, systems) to help you truly let go.
★ Author He Shengjun is a behavioural design expert, MBA from Southwest Jiaotong University, and former product line head at Himalaya (one of China’s largest audio platforms). His books have sold over 300,000 copies combined.
★ During the Vietnam War, 20% of US soldiers developed heroin addiction — yet only 5% relapsed after returning home. Change the environment, and addictive behaviour fades. Understand this, and you can design your way out.
★ This book doesn‘t just explain why you’re addicted — it gives you actionable tools to reverse-engineer behavioural addiction for learning, work, and parenting, and take back control.

In the early 1950s, psychologists James Olds and Peter Milner implanted electrodes into rats‘ brains. Most rats avoided the metal bar after being shocked. But one — Rat No. 34 — did the opposite. It pressed the bar obsessively, ignoring food and water, 7,000 times in 12 hours, until it collapsed and died. The electrode had accidentally touched the brain’s “pleasure centre.” This experiment revealed the brain‘s reward system: when the pleasure centre is precisely stimulated, animals will abandon all survival needs.
The author uses this story to show you: the reason you can’t stop scrolling short videos is fundamentally the same neural mechanism.

“Behavioural Addiction” is divided into three core modules.
【Understanding Module】: A clear distinction between behavioural addiction (psychological dependence) and substance addiction (physical dependence). Freud once prescribed cocaine as a cure for depression — his friend died in agony because of it, and Freud himself took 12 years to realize its harm. Substance addiction is hard to break; behavioural addiction is even harder.
【Mechanism Module】: Six psychological mechanisms — Trigger (how your attention is pre-booked), Onboarding (loss aversion and sunk cost at work), Instant Feedback (the magic that keeps you going), Escalating Challenges (how addiction strategies hook you), Incompleteness (why cliffhangers make you itch), and Social Elements (the maze that traps you). Each mechanism comes with concrete product examples — from WeChat red dots to blind box gachas to infinite short video scrolls. The book offers a core formula: B (Behaviour) = M (Motivation) × A (Ability) × T (Trigger). These are multipliers — if any one factor is zero, the behaviour won‘t happen.
【Practice Module】: Four tools for behaviour change — Habits, Micro-Habits, Environment, and Systems. During the Vietnam War, 20% of US soldiers developed heroin addiction overseas. After returning home, only 5% relapsed. The environment changed, and the addiction faded. The author argues: addiction isn’t about the substance itself — it‘s about the environment that triggers it. Understand the environment, and you can design your way out.

Finally, the author shows you how to reverse-engineer behavioural addiction — gamifying learning, work, and parenting — so you can become addicted to what truly matters.

He Shengjun is a psychological science writer and behavioural design expert. He holds an MBA from Southwest Jiaotong University, and has served as operations manager at an internet unicorn company, product line head at Himalaya (one of China‘s largest audio platforms), and deputy general manager at an electronics manufacturing platform company.
He has published over ten books, including “Behavioural Addiction,” “Marketing Psychology,” “Game Theory Psychology,” “The Entropy Law,” “The Courage Not to Be Overbearing,” “Addicted to Self-Discipline,” and “Schrödinger’s Cat.” Among these, “The Courage Not to Be Overbearing” has sold over 200,000 copies, and “The Entropy Law” over 150,000 copies — his combined works have exceeded 300,000 copies in sales.
He is a highly regarded psychological science writer on platforms including Douyin, JD.com, and Dangdang. His columns on psychology have been published across major Chinese media outlets (including Shi Dian Reading, Yi Psychology, and Jinri Toutiao), with cumulative readership exceeding 19 million.

Part 1 — Break Through Perceptions: How You Think About Behavioural Addiction Determines Your Life
1.1 The Truth: What Makes You Unable to Let Go
1.2 Awareness: These Behaviours Are All Addictions
1.3 The Trend: “Addiction-by-Design” Is Stealing Your Time and Energy
1.4 Substance Addiction: Even Freud Couldn‘t Escape the Temptation
1.5 Behavioural Addiction: The Mind’s Hold Is Stronger Than the Body‘s

Part 2 — Mechanism 1: Trigger — How Your “First Attention” Is Booked
2.1 The Action Formula: All Addictive Behaviour Follows One Psychological Equation
2.2 Preference Trigger: The Comfort Zone Where “There’s One for Everyone”
2.3 Social Trigger: Two Powerful Buttons That Activate Your Psychology
2.4 Individual Trigger: How You Step into a Role Without Noticing
2.5 Mini-Review: Your First “Encounter” with Behavioural Addiction

Part 3 — Mechanism 2: Onboarding — The Psychological Forces That Push You In
3.1 Newbie Benefits: The Magic That Turns Rejection into Addiction
3.2 Loss Aversion: Small Favours vs. Endless Payback
3.3 Sunk Cost: The “Ultimate Experience” You Can Buy for $1
3.4 Blind Box Psychology: How Uncertain Rewards Trap You
3.5 Mini-Review: Onboarding — The Cost of an Easy Start

Part 4 — Mechanism 3: Instant Feedback — The Magic That Keeps You Going
4.1 Instant Feedback: Why You Check Your Phone Every Minute
4.2 Chasing Long-Shot Wins: How Many People Can “Get Rich Overnight” on Slots?
4.3 Almost Won: “One More Try and I‘ll Get the Prize”
4.4 Random Rewards: Why Uncertain “Wins” Are So Exciting
4.5 Mini-Review: These Designs Keep You Hooked

Part 5 — Mechanism 4: Escalating Challenges — How Addiction Strategies Make You Crave More
5.1 “Satisfaction Engineering”: The Secret Behind Viral Web Novelists
5.2 User Progression Systems: What Makes You Grateful While Being “Held Hostage”
5.3 Flow Experience: The Deep Satisfaction of Completing Patterns
5.4 The Endowment Effect: A Nobel Laureate Explains How People Get Addicted
5.5 Mini-Review: How These Psychological Tactics Lose You in “Grinding”

Part 6 — Mechanism 5: Incompleteness — Why Unfinished Things Make You Itch
6.1 Unfinished Business: Suspense Is the Ultimate Hook
6.2 Cognitive Gaps: Why Different Editing Can Make You Binge-Watch All Night
6.3 Unpredictability: Anticipation Fuels Excitement
6.4 Default Options: How “Curated Playlists” Keep Your Headphones On
6.5 Mini-Review: The Zeigarnik Effect — Its Curse and Its Solution

Part 7 — Mechanism 6: Social Elements — The Maze That Traps You Online
7.1 Social Media: The Invisible Web That Traps Visible Beings
7.2 Reciprocal Virality: The Marketing “Nuclear Weapon” That Terrifies Sales
7.3 Community Socializing: Virtual Organizations Where “Big Addicts Hide in the World”
7.4 Knowledge Socializing: How Platforms Manage Your Knowledge Anxiety
7.5 Mini-Review: Social Connection Is Humanity‘s Eternal Theme

Part 8 — Clear Thinking: Effective Detox — The Behavioural Training That Lets You Let Go
8.1 The Power of Habit: Replacing a Bad Habit with a Good One
8.2 The Power of Micro-Habits: The “Secret” to Dismantling Addictive Habits
8.3 The Power of Environment: Why Only 5% of Soldiers Relapsed
8.4 The Power of Tools: The Pomodoro Technique vs. Evernote
8.5 Mini-Review: Four Forces That Help You Take Control and Let Go

Part 9 — Reclaiming Agency: Becoming Addicted to What Matters
9.1 Gamified Learning: Using Small Group Environments to Spark Positive Feedback
9.2 Gamified Work: Encouraging Progress with Behavioural Point Systems
9.3 Gamified Parenting: Virtual Rewards and Game-Based Learning Platforms