-APA Dictionary of Psychology
Novelty.n: the quality of being new and unusual. It is one of the major determining factors directing attention. The attraction to novelty has been shown to begin as early as 1 year of age; for example, when infants are shown pictures of visual patterns, they will stare longer at a new pattern than at a pattern they have already seen. In consumer behavior, the attraction to novelty is manifested as a desire for a change, even in the absence of dissatisfaction with the present situation. For example, despite satisfaction with a particular product, many consumers will switch to a different brand just because it is new.
While everyone has novelty thresholds, the anomalous thinker has higher thresholds for it. Like many other things in life, it’s more of a spectrum than a simple yes or no. Someone can have moderate novelty thresholds. That means that they only require a moderate amount of novelty in order to reach satisfaction.
For those with high novelty thresholds, they bore easily and it takes quite a bit to hold and maintain their attention. In some cases high novelty thresholds show up as an inability to watch the same movie twice, re-read the same book or repeat oneself ad nauseum.
Having low novelty thresholds shows up in those that can do repetitive work without developing atrophy. They have favorite songs that they keep on repeat, they watch and rewatch movies and don’t mind retelling or rehearing familiar stories. Novelty thresholds can also vary from one area to another. One can have high novelty thresholds with food, travel and media, but low thresholds with the cars they drive and clothes they wear.
For most people novelty thresholds are relatively static. There can be notable events in a person’s life that may alter that, but largely, they remain consistent. For the anomalous thinker, these thresholds fluctuate depending on the processing and growth seasons that the thinker may be in. For example, in the input phase of processing, novelty thresholds are very high, whereas during the output phase, it could be much lower. During seasons of positive disintergration novelty will be higher than usual. Periods of grief will either drastically increase or decrease the novelty thresholds, but there will be significant fluctuation.
There are things that we typically classify as needs. Food, water, safety. Yet for those that are wired with complexity, the emotional, cognitive, spiritual, and even physical needs are higher than average. Novelty may seem frivolous, but it’s not. It is indeed a necessity. If your anomalous thinker is more of a synthesizer (scanning and gathering data from various places and creating a mash up or synthesis of the data), they will have significantly higher levels of novelty required.
Without atrophy or comorbidities, novelty is typically cyclical. They may desire a significant amount of novelty, then the desire will drop. These seasons can be quarterly, seasonal according to weather seasons, seasons of creativity or even over a lifetime. They may require more novelty in early years and less in older years or vice versa. There is the rare group of anomalous thinkers that are your modern day nomads. They will constantly require novelty and are at their healthiest and best when roaming.
Change is an essential part of life. The anomalous thinker is in part wired to initiate change. They desire in the deepest parts of who they are. They may not know how to initiate that change and may even be afraid of the very changes that they long for. Generally speaking, their need for novelty does not indicate dissatisfaction with the current state of their life or the people in it. They desire change and growth because it’s possible. They also desire it, because it is how they learn and grow. They gather data and process through new experiences. They want to live life to fullest.
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