Friday, December 12, 2008

Guilt is Rational, Punishment Emotional

You know how they put you under f-MRI and see what happens inside your brain as they do things to your head? I don't think the results of such tests are all that conclusive, but they sure are interestig.

News from News Scientist is that making use of  f-MRI, a team of researchers at Vanderbilt University have probed the brains of 16 volunteers and come to this conclusion that the sense of justice may be inborn in the human brain. Our brains respond to acts of injustice even when we are not directly affected,  as if we were personally wronged.

The researchers also state that we assess guilt rationally and give out punishment emotionally.

Activity in a small part of the prefrontal cortex seems to make the difference between the certainty of culpability and scenarios where the guilt was more uncertain, no matter the severity of the crime. When another team temporarily blocked the rDLPFC (the area that judges what is fair and what is not). with a magnet, participants playing a financial game that tests trust failed to punish unfair offers.

Now, this makes no difference to how we live, but I think, we will have to think twice before saying- you have your views and I have mine. It is possible that the other party has more information than you, he is certain who is guilty, and I, with lack of it, can't judge objectively.


3 comments:

  1. We should know the facts before holding some one guilty and that requires a rational mind. Once we hold a man guilty, our mind registers the extent / degree of crime / cruelty committed. This automatically makes punishment an emotional act.

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  2. Place a man in a jungle, and never having seen a woman, put one in front of him. He will not necessarily rape her.

    Suppressed emotions result in madness. No wonder then, public floggings are witnessed by hundreds. So are celebrities.
    A healthy mind may not be enamoured by mass hysteria and stardom.
    No wonder then that most independent directors avoid useless limelight.

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  3. definitely, yes- for creative people fame could be a burden, because they tie them with past achievements.

    but for ordinary people like me, it is comforting to think someone knows me, recognises me. Because otherwise i am nobody- it is from the other people that i know what i am.

    in the end, i think it is to do with authenticity, how true i am to what i am.

    I think guilt is a logical conclusion, so the brain has to be 'rational', but emotions might rule what punishment we mete out.

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