[Rhodes22-list] No S*!t Sherlock! You Don't Say!

[Steven Alm]

Ummmm... Then how do you explain that someone like me is still out and
walking around?

On 10/3/07, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The statute of limitations has run out for my older boys, not that it
> would
> help them now.  Here's the latest.  Brad
>
> -------------------------
>
> October 3, 2007 - 6:06 PM Threat of punishment can deter bad behaviour
> [image:
> The study raises questions about how justice is meted out]
>
> Image caption: The study raises questions about how justice is meted
> out (Keystone)
>
>
> The fear of being punished makes people less likely to violate social
> norms, according to a study by Swiss and German researchers.
>
> Using scanning technology, the scientists were able to show which parts of
> the brain react to the threat of punishment, highlighting that lesions in
> these regions might lead to antisocial behaviour.
>
>
>
> The study, published on Wednesday in the brain research journal Neuron,
> aimed to understand the effects of potential punishment on the
> decision-making process.
>
>
>
> "Our societies have clear definitions of what is appropriate," said Ernst
> Fehr, an economist at Zurich University and one of the authors. He points
> to
> norms such as fairness, cooperation and honesty.
>
>
>
> "Most people are willing to comply with these norms in the absence of
> punishment," he told swissinfo. "But a significant minority will only do
> so
> if threatened."
>
>
>
> Fehr gives telling the truth as an example of a social norm that most
> people
> understand. That doesn't stop anyone from lying at some point though.
>
>
>
> The researchers focused on how prepared people were to comply with the
> fairness norm using a money allocation game. A person had to decide how
> much
> of a certain amount of money they were prepared to share with another.
>
>
>
> In one case, there was no punishment for an unfair division of the funds,
> while in the other the recipient could decide to financially punish the
> giver.
>
>
>
> The activation of certain areas of the brain when punishment was an option
> was highlighted using so-called functional magnetic resonance imaging.
> This
> technique can show neural activity by detecting blood flow in the brain.
>
>
> Egoistic impulses
>
>
>
> "People who primarily comply with a norm because of the threat of
> punishment
> probably have to suppress their egoistic impulses more strongly, which
> then
> activates this region of the frontal lobe more strongly," said Fehr.
>
>
>
> "This result extends previous results we found showing that egoistic
> decisions are more likely to be made if this area of the brain is
> suppressed
> in its activity."
>
>
>
> For the researchers, the implications of their study go beyond
> highlighting
> that some people only respond to threats. In many young people, the
> regions
> of the brain involved are not fully developed, perhaps explaining why
> potential punishment does not prevent anti-social behaviour.
>
>
>
> "Our findings suggest that courts should be more careful in determining
> the
> penal responsibility of teenagers and young adults," added Fehr.
>
>
>
> In most European countries – including Switzerland – this responsibility
> is
> set at age 18, or even 20. In the United States, it is often much lower.
>
>
> Psychopaths
>
>
>
> The authors suggest that their findings could help understand psychopathic
> behaviour. They say this is because people with lesions in the social
> compliance circuitry highlighted by their research are incapable of
> behaving
> in appropriate ways even though they understand social norms.
>
>
>
> Fehr warns though that using scans to determine whether someone is
> dangerous
> for society is not enough.
>
>
>
> "I think that if the brain is permanently damaged, a criminal should not
> be
> released," he told swissinfo. "But you do not lock someone up for life
> based
> on a scan; it's just one possible element that can intervene in a
> judgement."
>
>
>
> He added that society plays a vital role in how norms are respected. "Our
> biology allows us to comply with social norms. But these norms are
> conditioned by society," he said.
>
>
>
> swissinfo, Scott Capper
>
>
>
> FUNCTIONAL MRI
>
> Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is used to visualize brain
> function, by visualizing changes in chemical composition of brain areas or
> changes in the flow of fluids that occur over periods stretching from
> seconds to minutes.
>
>
>
> In the brain, blood flow is presumed to be related to neural activity, so
> fMRI, like other imaging techniques, can be used to find out what the
> brain
> is doing when subjects perform specific tasks or are exposed to specific
> stimuli.
>
>
>
> Procedure: a series of baseline images are taken of the brain region of
> interest when the subject is at rest; the subject performs a task and a
> second series is taken; then the first set of images is subtracted from
> the
> second, and the areas that are most visible in the resulting image are
> presumed to have been activated by the task.
>
>
>
> LINKS
>
>    - Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, Zurich
> University<http://www.iew.uzh.ch/index.en.html>
>     (http://www.iew.uzh.ch/index.en.html)
>    - Neuron <http://www.neuron.org/> (http://www.neuron.org/)
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *URL of this story:*
> http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=8277709
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