Posted on 01/19/2006 4:56:13 AM PST by InvisibleChurch
A University College London brain imaging study suggests men gain greater satisfaction than women when witnessing retribution.
The study -- conducted at the Wellcome Trust biomedical research charity at UCL -- involved 32 male and female volunteers plus four "confederates" who were actually actors, but that fact was kept from the rest of the group.
In the first part of the experiment, volunteers played a monetary investment game, giving cash to the actors who had to then decide how much to give back. One actor behaved fairly, while the "unfair" actor returned very little, if any money at all.
The volunteers were then placed in a magnetic resonance imaging brain scanner, and researchers measured empathic responses as the actors received a mild electric shock. When the "fair" actor received the shock both female and male volunteers showed empathy activation in pain related areas of the brain.
When the unfair actor received a shock the women showed empathy. However, brain images of the men showed no increased activity, but did reveal a surge in the nucleus accumbens, the "reward" region of the brain.
The study appears in the journal Nature.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
Another "Holmes, you astound me" moment brought to you by the government-academia complex.
No, it can't be. Men and Women are identical, there can't be any possible difference in how their brains work, or else that might mean that Laurence Summers may have had a point, and the feminists ensure us that he didn't.
I don't know. Maybe I'm a heartless b****. I think retribution is very rewarding.
While I thorougly enjoy the idea of bad guys suffering, I'm not so sure that I'd enjoy watching it happen.
..maybe witnessing retribution.
But many don't mind handing it out. In spades!
I guess we can assume, based on this study, that it would be better to have a woman as our leader. Hmmm. Sounds like those studies during the Clinton era that found that most people lie about sex.
I can certainly believe that men enjoy watching retribution in action, but it seems to me that women are more likely than men to seek revenge on someone who has harmed them. Maybe it's just me, but I know some women who can be extremely catty and wily in seeking out personal revenge.
I could have told them that, they could buy me a new house and save allot of money on studies like that
Retribution/Revenge ---- Best when served COLD!
Me too!
Obviously none of the women in the study were FReepers!
:)
There has to be a Viking Kitty joke in here somewhere.
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