I remember hearing a report on NPR regarding the effect of dopamine on obese people.
It turns out that dopamine, the chemical in our brains that relates to pleasure, causes a rather nasty vicious cycle in obese people.
Somehow, the more you eat of a certain enjoyable food – they tested people using chocolate milkshakes – the more you learn to crave it. But the downside is that even as you’re craving it more, you derive less pleasure from the experience.
In short, you may want something – or tell yourself that you want it – only to find you don’t actually like it. Wants and likes are not necessarily the same.
I find this on certain trips.
I allow myself to believe the guidebooks or reviews by others without filtering them through my own sense of what I value. I’m notorious about this when it comes to big cities.