This new bit of research found over at ScienceDaily is kindof’ interesting:
Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) in collaboration with Aarhus University in Denmark have found that the ‘reward’ area of the brain is activated when people agree with our opinions. [emphasis mine]
The news release title read, Brain Study Shows That the Opinions of Others Matters.
While this is not surprising — we’ve known this by way of behavior for quite some time, the original part is the brain study method of verification — it is important.
Why does “the opinion of others matter”? Allow me to speculate here a little. We are social animals, which means we are emotional animals — for the two are conjoined. With a pleasant feeling comes a perception of closeness/harmony. Relationships are a resource. You may want to be on a person’s “good side” in case something hits the fan and you need assistance and/or and ally.
In an extreme example, the ass-kissing yes-man attempts to tickle a superior’s “pleasure center” so as to get or remain on his or her good side. Or, in the least, to avoid being on a bad side. When conflict arises, the human brain seems to switch into “friend-or-foe?” mode. To protect our own derrieres, we prefer to not to face adversity alone, or face a more powerful and/or more peopled opposition.
In the less extreme example, a bulk of small talk seems to consist of offering up relatively trivial statements — hot enough for ya? — as a way of testing how readily another person will play along and agree with us. Not so much with the fact of the statement, but with the intent: I’m friendly, if anything I mean to please you. Perhaps even help you.
Proverbial small talk can be a means of “courting” a potential ally. Testing their potential. It can also be a way of maintaining an already established bond. But rather than money being the currency of exchange, it is pleasure. Thanks to the ventral striatum.
Have you had your ventral striatum stroked today?
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