tut comments on You cannot be mistaken about (not) wanting to wirehead - Less Wrong
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Good news for you then: Humans are not understimulated rats. There was an experiment where some psychologists gave some subjects electrodes and a device which stimulated their "reward center" (this was back when it was believed that dopamine was the happiness chemical and desire-wireheading was the same as happiness-wireheading) whenever they pushed a button. They also recorded every time the button was pushed. The subjects carried the electrodes for a while (I believe it was a week) and then returned them. All the subjects went about their lives, doing normal things with about their normal amount of motivation. All of them used the button at least a few times and reported that they liked it. But only one guy used it more than ten times per day, and he was intentionally (but unsuccessfully) using it for classical conditioning.
A reference would be nice - please. :)
This is the best I find right now and I need to go to bed. They retell the same anecdote that I referred to at the end of that piece.
Here is the relevant part:
Though in the version I read several years ago the events were in a different order. And they were actually talking about this as a means to reach the happy equilibrium that Kaj is talking about, so they talked much more about the other subjects in the experiment. I had forgotten that Heath interfered with the gay guy after, because that was kind of downplayed.