It appears researchers have figured out a way to cure selfish people who lack empathy. (Sarcasm alert) Who needs a cure for cancer, AIDS, the flu or even male pattern baldness when you can cure selfish people? According to the results of two studies, it is possible to make people more altruistic. It simply requires decreasing the activity in certain areas of the brain. When this happens, it results in an increase in someone's generosity. This type of research could change the way big corporations and big government operate. I wonder how they decided to study such a thing?
“Why do we always have to research what you want?”
“Because I want to do research that furthers my career.”
“Why can't we research what I want to research?”
“Because your career is not my concern. Should you want to research something that furthers my career, I'll be interested.”
“That does it; now I'm reducing specific types of your brain's activity.”
“Ouch, hitting me in the head with a chair hurt.”
“Now, how do you feel?”
“I don't feel more empathetic, but I do feel a lot more scared of you. What do you want to research?”
“How about reducing brain activity in certain areas of the brain to increase altruism.”
“I will only agree if hitting me in the head with a chair is not part of the research.”
“Okay, I was looking forward to it, but no more chair hitting.”
“It's a deal.”
Below are excerpts from the story in bold. My valuable insights are in italics.
One task involved viewing a video of a hand being pricked by a pin, while the other task involved viewing photographs of faces showing a variety of different emotions - such as happy, sad and angry - and imitating them.
(Sarcasm alert) If you have 20 participants you know you're involved in groundbreaking research that could change the way our world works. Watching videos of a hand being pricked by a pin and imitating the expressions of people in pictures will just reveal so many unknown aspects of life. I wonder about the 20 participants participated in this study. I bet they were probably college kids desperate for beer money.
“Dude, where are we going to get money for beer tonight?”
“Hey, lets go to the research place on campus. They'll pay us money to watch a hand being pricked with a pin as they scan our brains.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, and then they show you pictures, and you have to imitate the people's expression in the picture.”
“Whoa, seems like them researchers are able to get all the beer they want.”
“Let's see if they have any studies that involve drinking beer.”
“Yeah, man that would be cool. ”
This is another situation where I ask myself “Now that we know this, what do we do?” So we know how the brains of 20 people reacted to videos of hands being pricked and their ability to imitate faces they see in pictures. This information is about as useful as a pogo stick in quicksand. (Ba da Boom) It's about as useful as a grave robber in a crematorium. (Ba da Bing) It makes about as much sense as a one-legged cat trying to bury a turd on a frozen lake. (Ba da Zing).
Next, the participants took part in a task called the "dictator game," in which they were given $10 each round for 24 rounds and asked whether they wanted to keep their money or share it with a stranger, for whom information on age and income was provided. On comparing the brain scans of participants with the amount of money they shared in the dictator game, the team found that individuals who demonstrated the greatest activity in the prefrontal cortex parted with the least money, giving away an average of $1-3 in each round.
Hey, seems like the participants giving away $1 to $3 out of their $10 makes them almost as bad as the people who gave nothing. If you have information on a person's age and income, they're really not that much of a stranger. I've known many people for years, who I considered friends, and I have no idea of their age or income. I'm not surprised everyone was so cheap. What do you expect from individuals who spend their time watching hands being pricked with pins and imitating people's expressions in pictures? Do you really expect people like that to do something other than hold onto their $10 so they can buy beer?”
Based on their results, the researchers suggest we may be hard-wired for altruism. What is more, they believe the results indicate that it may be possible to make people less selfish and more generous toward others.
"This is potentially groundbreaking," says Christov-Moore. Senior author Marco Iacoboni, a psychiatry professor at UCLA, adds:
"The study is important proof of principle that with a non-invasive procedure you can make people behave in a more prosocial way."
Are you serious? It seems these researchers need to spend some time reading “1984” and stop spending so much time reading “Mein Kampf.” They may be taking the dictator game a little too far. I like the part about the “non-invasive procedure that can make people behave in a more prosocial way.” What does all this mean? What do these people consider “prosocial?” Were these researchers raised in North Korea or do they just admire their government's ability to control a population? (Sarcasm alert) They know all this from 20 people watching a video and looking at pictures?. Maybe the most prosocial thing these researchers can do is to conduct some real research. They also could move to North Korea where this type of a study would make them heroes. Maybe even do some prosocial research on Dennis Rodman while they're at it. (If you don't know what I'm referring to just Google Dennis Rodman and North Korea.)
Press Release About Study
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