Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect (47 page)

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Authors: Matthew D. Lieberman

Tags: #Psychology, #Social Psychology, #Science, #Life Sciences, #Neuroscience, #Neuropsychology

BOOK: Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect
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66

Genetic samples were obtained from a group of individuals
Way, B. M., Taylor, S. E., & Eisenberger, N. I. (2009). Variation in the mu-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) is associated with dispositional and neural sensitivity to social rejection.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Stated of America, 106
, 15079–15084.

67

The human visual system makes various assumptions
James, W. (1890/1950).
The Principles of Psychology
. New York: Dover.

68

Kip Williams found that even when he told people
Zadro, L., Williams, K. D., & Richardson, R. (2004). How low can you go? Ostracism by a computer is sufficient to lower self-reported levels of belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40
(4), 560–567.

69

why would all those others watch the bully
Kaltiala-Heino, R., Rimpelä, M., Marttunen, M., Rimpelä, A., & Rantanen, P. (1999). Bullying, depression, and suicidal ideation in Finnish adolescents: School survey.
Bmj, 319
(7206), 348–351; Juvonen, J., & Galván, A. (2009). Bullying as a means to foster compliance. In M. Harris (Ed.).
Bullying, Rejection and Peer Victimization: A Social Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective
. New York: Springer, pp. 299–318.

69

about 10 percent of students are bullied
Fleming, L. C., & Jacobsen, K. H. (2009). Bullying and symptoms of depression in Chilean middle school students.
Journal of School Health, 79
(3), 130–137; Wolke, D., Woods, S., Stanford, K., & Schulz, H. (2001). Bullying and victimization of primary school children in England and Germany: Prevalence and school factors.
British Journal of Psychology, 92
(4), 673–696; Kaltiala-Heino, R., Rimpelä, M., Marttunen, M., Rimpelä, A., & Rantanen, P. (1999). Bullying, depression, and suicidal ideation in Finnish adolescents: School survey.
Bmj, 319
(7206), 348–351; Kim, Y. S., Koh, Y. J., & Leventhal, B. (2005). School bullying and suicidal risk in Korean middle school students.
Pediatrics, 115
(2), 357–363.

69

they involve belittling comments
Nansel, T. R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R. S., Ruan, W. J., Simons-Morton, B., & Scheidt, P. (2001). Bullying behaviors among US youth.
JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, 285
(16), 2094–2100.

69

They think about committing suicide more
Klomek, A. B., Marrocco, F., Kleinman, M., Schonfeld, I. S., & Gould, M. S. (2007). Bullying, depression, and suicidality in adolescents.
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 46
(1), 40.

69

A 1989 Finnish study assessed the level of victimization
Klomek, A. B., Sourander, A., Niemelä, S., Kumpulainen, K., Piha, J., Tamminen, T., … , & Gould, M. S. (2009). Childhood bullying behaviors as a risk for suicide attempts and completed suicides: A population-based birth cohort study.
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 48
(3), 254–261.

69

Suicide-related thoughts are actually quite similar
Smith, M. T., Edwards, R. R., Robinson, R. C., & Dworkin, R. H. (2004). Suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts in chronic pain patients: Factors associated with increased risk.
Pain, 111
, 201–208.

Chapter 4: Fairness Tastes like Chocolate

72

and independently performed an anagram
Hegtvedt, K. A., & Killian, C. (1999). Fairness and emotions: Reactions to the process and outcomes of negotiations.
Social Forces, 78
(1), 269–302.

73

Psychologist Tom Tyler found that defendants in court cases
Tyler, T. R. (1984). The role of perceived injustice in defendants’ evaluations of their courtroom experience.
Law & Society Review, 18
, 51.

73

evidence for or against the notion that fairness
Tabibnia, G., Satpute, A. B., & Lieberman, M. D. (2008). The sunny side of fairness: Preference for fairness activates reward circuitry (and disregarding unfairness activates self-control circuitry).
Psychological Science, 19
, 339–347.

74

studies typically observe activity in the anterior insula and the dACC
Sanfey, A. G., Rilling, J. K., Aronson, J. A., Nystrom, L. E., & Cohen, J. D. (2003). The neural basis of economic decision-making in the ultimatum game.
Science, 300
(5626), 1755–1758; Civai, C., Crescentini, C., Rustichini, A., & Rumiati, R. I. (2012). Equality versus self-interest in the brain: Differential roles of anterior insula and medial prefrontal cortex.
NeuroImage, 62
, 102–112.

74

a group of researchers from Cal Tech examined the neural responses
Tricomi, E., Rangel, A., Camerer, C. F., & O’Doherty, J. P. (2010). Neural evidence for inequality-averse social preferences.
Nature, 463
(7284), 1089–1091.

75

these are referred to as
social rewards
Lieberman, M. D., & Eisenberger, N. I. (2009). Pains and pleasures of social life.
Science, 323
, 890–891.

76

Signs that others like, admire, and love us
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation.
Psychological Bulletin, 117
(3), 497.

76

asked participants for permission to contact their friends
Inagaki, T. K., & Eisenberger, N. I. (in press). Shared neural mechanisms underlying social warmth and physical warmth,
Psychological Science
.

77

looked at how rewarding these touching statements really were
Castle, E., & Lieberman, M. D. (unpublished data). How much would you pay to hear “I love you”?

77

our reactions to getting this rarely shared positive feedback
Guyer, A. E., Choate, V. R., Pine, D. S., & Nelson, E. E. (2012). Neural circuitry underlying affective response to peer feedback in adolescence.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 7
(1), 81–92; Davey, C. G., Allen, N. B., Harrison, B. J., Dwyer, D. B., & Yücel, M. (2010). Being liked activates primary reward and midline self-related brain regions.
Human Brain Mapping, 31
(4), 660–668.

77

participants in the scanner saw that strangers
Izuma, K., Saito, D. N., & Sadato, N. (2008). Processing of social and monetary rewards in the human striatum.
Neuron, 58
(2), 284.

78

praise taps into the same reinforcement system
Baumeister, R. F., Campbell, J. D., Krueger, J. I., & Vohs, K. D. (2003). Does high self-esteem cause better performance, interpersonal success, happiness, or healthier lifestyles?
Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 4
(1), 1–44.

79

Rewards can be divided
Hull, C. L. (1952).
A Behavior System: An Introduction to Behavior Theory Concerning the Individual Organism.
New Haven: Yale University Press.

80

The red patch is not intrinsically rewarding
Schultz, W., Dayan, P., & Montague, P. R. (1997). A neural substrate of prediction and reward.
Science, 275
(5306), 1593–1599.

81

humans are supercooperators
Melis, A. P., Semmann, D., Melis, A. P., & Semmann, D. (2010). How is human cooperation different?
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 365
(1553), 2663–2674; Nowak, M., & Highfield, R. (2012).
SuperCooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed
. New York: Free Press.

81

The
principle of reciprocity
is one of the strongest
Cialdini, R. B. (2001).
Influence: Science and Practice
(Vol. 4). Boston: Allyn & Bacon; Burger, J. M., Sanchez, J., Imberi, J. E., & Grande, L. R. (2009). The norm of reciprocity as an internalized social norm: Returning favors even when no one finds out.
Social Influence, 4
(1), 11–17.

81

By performing a small favor for you
Regan, R. T. (1971). Effects of a favor and liking on compliance.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 7
, 627–639.

82

a game called the
Prisoner’s Dilemma
I highly recommend doing a YouTube search for “golden balls,” a British game show based on the Prisoner’s Dilemma. The top few hits are highly entertaining.

83

people still choose to cooperate
Hayashi, N., Ostrom, E., Walker, J., & Yamagishi, T. (1999). Reciprocity, trust, and the sense of control: A cross-societal study.
Rationality and Society, 11
(1), 27–46; Kiyonari, T., Tanida, S., & Yamagishi, T. (2000). Social exchange and reciprocity: Confusion or a heuristic?
Evolution and Human Behavior, 21
(6), 411–427.

83

How can we explain why folks cooperate
Kiyonari, T., Tanida, S., & Yamagishi, T. (2000). Social exchange and reciprocity: Confusion or a heuristic?
Evolution and Human Behavior, 21
(6), 411–427.

83

“the first principle of economics
Edgeworth, F. Y. (1881).
Mathematical Psychics: An Essay on the Application of Mathematics to the Moral Sciences
. London: Kegan Paul, p. 104.

83

“no other end, in all his actions
Hume (1898/1754, p.117). Hume, D. (2001/1754).
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
(Vol. 3). New York: Oxford University Press, p. 117.

83

“every man is presumed to seek
Hobbes, T. (1969/1651).
Leviathan
(
part iii
). Aldershot, England: Scolar Press.

83

known as the
axiom of self-interest
Hollander, S. (1977). Adam Smith and the self-interest axiom.
Journal of Law and Economics, 20
(1), 133–152.

84

What is surprising, though, is that
Hayashi, N., Ostrom, E., Walker, J., & Yamagishi, T. (1999). Reciprocity, trust, and the sense of control: A cross-societal study.
Rationality and Society, 11
(1), 27–46.

84

in addition to being self-interested
Fehr, E., & Camerer, C. F. (2007). Social neuroeconomics: The neural circuitry of social preferences.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11
(10), 419–427.

84

people made decisions counter to their own self-interest
Henrich, J., Boyd, R., Bowles, S., Camerer, C., Fehr, E., Gintis, H., … , & Tracer, D. (2005). “Economic man” in cross-cultural perspective: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28
(6), 795–814.

85

“try to teach generosity and altruism
Dawkins, R. (1976).
The Selfish Gene
. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

85

We know what the brain looks like
Spitzer, M., Fischbacher, U., Herrnberger, B., Grön, G., & Fehr, E. (2007). The neural signature of social norm compliance.
Neuron, 56
(1), 185–196; O’Doherty, J. P., Buchanan, T. W., Seymour, B., & Dolan, R. J. (2006). Predictive neural coding of reward preference involves dissociable responses in human ventral midbrain and ventral striatum.
Neuron, 49
(1), 157.

85

in the minds of people as they cooperate or defect
Rilling, J. K., Gutman, D. A., Zeh, T. R., Pagnoni, G., Berns, G. S., & Kilts, C. D. (2002). A neural basis for social cooperation.
Neuron, 35
(2), 395–405.

86

ruling out long-term strategies like reputation building
Rilling, J. K., Sanfey, A. G., Aronson, J. A., Nystrom, L. E., & Cohen, J. D. (2004). Opposing BOLD responses to reciprocated and unreciprocated altruism in putative reward pathways.
Neuroreport, 15
(16), 2539–2243.

86

In Isaac Asimov’s book
The End of the Eternity
Asimov, I. (2010/1955).
The End of Eternity
. New York: Tor Books, pp. 117–118.

87

“Scratch an ‘altruist’ and watch a ‘hypocrite’ bleed”
Ghiselin, M. T. (1974).
The Economy of Nature and the Evolution of Sex
(Vol. 247). Berkeley: University of California Press; Dawkins, R. (1976).
The Selfish Gene
. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

87

there may be a hidden selfish motivation
Batson, C. D. (1991).
The Altruism Question: Toward a Social-Psychological Answer
. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, p. 116.

89

the psychological mechanism that motivates us to selflessly help
Wilson, E. O. (2012).
The Social Conquest of Earth
. New York: Liveright.

89

what some call the warm glow of altruistic behavior
Andreoni, J. (1990). Impure altruism and donations to public goods: A theory of warm-glow giving.
Economic Journal, 100
(401), 464–477.

89

to be selfish, you should do it in a very intelligent way
Lama, D. (1994).
The Way to Freedom.
New York: HarperCollins, p. 154.

89

an fMRI study looking at the activity in the brain
Moll, J., Krueger, F., Zahn, R., Pardini, M., de Oliveira-Souza, R., & Grafman, J. (2006). Human fronto-mesolimbic networks guide decisions about charitable donation.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103
(42), 15623–15628; Harbaugh, W. T., Mayr, U., & Burghart, D. R. (2007). Neural responses to taxation and voluntary giving reveal motives for charitable donations.
Science, 316
(5831), 1622–1625.

90

the most selfish people on the planet: teenagers
Telzer, E. H., Masten, C. L., Berkman, E. T., Lieberman, M. D., & Fuligni, A. J. (2010). Gaining while giving: An fMRI study of the rewards of family assistance among White and Latino youth.
Social Neuroscience, 5
, 508–518.

90

examined supportive behavior between boyfriends and girlfriends
Inagaki, T. K., & Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Neural correlates of giving support to a loved one.
Psychosomatic Medicine, 74
, 3–7.

91

our support of others could contribute significantly to our well-being
Brown, S. L., Nesse, R. M., Vinokur, A. D., & Smith, D. M. (2003). Providing social support may be more beneficial than receiving it: Results from a prospective study of mortality.
Psychological Science, 14
(4), 320–327.

91

Adam Smith, one of the founders of modern economics
Smith, A. (1776).
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
. London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell.

91

“How selfish soever man may be supposed
Smith, A. (1759).
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
. Edinburgh: A. Kincaid and J. Bell.

92

Many mammalian species have shown opioid-linked pleasure responses
Keverne, E. B., Martensz, N. D., & Tuite, B. (1989). Beta-endorphin concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid of monkeys are influenced by grooming relationships.
Psychoneuroendocrinology, 14
(1), 155–161.

92

in humans most of our grooming is verbal
Dunbar, R. (1998). Theory of mind and the evolution of language. In J. Hurford, M. Studdart-Kennedy, & C. Knight (Eds.).
Approaches to the Evolution of Language
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 92–110.

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