14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers at the University of Zurich claim to have discovered the area of the human brain that is in charge of compelling people to obey social norms. They theorize that, by zapping this brain region, it might be possible to keep criminals from reoffending and therefore reduce crime.
In order to identify the mechanisms that make people act in a certain way in various social contexts, the scientists carried out a series of experiments with the help of 63 volunteers.
More precisely, they gave each of the individuals a fixed sum of money, and asked them to decide whether or not they wished to share it with an anonymous partner.
Those who agreed to share also had to decide exactly how much money they were ready and willing to part with.
Apparently, the correct thing to do in this situation was to equally split the money with the anonymous partner. Needless to say, doing so went against each of the volunteers' instinct to put their self-interest first.
The researchers later repeated the experiment, only that this time they told the volunteers that they would be punished if they did not do the right thing, Daily Mail reports.
During both these experiments, the scientists used mild electric shocks to up or reduce the levels of neural activity in the volunteers' right lateral prefrontal cortex, i.e. an area at the front of the brain.
“When neural activity in this part of the brain was increased via stimulation, the participants’ followed the fairness norm more strongly when sanctions were threatened, but their voluntary norm compliance in the absence of possible punishments decreased,” the researchers explain on the official website for the University of Zurich.
“Conversely, when the scientists decreased neural activity, participants followed the fairness norm more strongly on a voluntary basis, but complied less with the norm when sanctions were threatened,” they further comment on their findings.
Interestingly enough, the electric shocks they received did not influence the volunteers' understanding of what the right thing to do was. Thus, the zapping merely influenced their behavior.
Commenting on the outcome of this experiment, Dr. Ernst Fehr said that, “We found that the brain mechanism responsible for compliance with social norms is separate from the processes that represent one’s knowledge and beliefs about the social norm.”
“This could have important implications for the legal system as the ability to distinguish between right and wrong may not be sufficient for the ability to comply with social norms,” he added.