Science explains reasons for selfishness

• April 29, 2024

The Spanish writer and sociologist Concepción Arenal says that "the great egoists are the establishment of the great evil ones". And this can be a great truth. When you think too much about yourself, you lose the perspective of things and destroy the relationship with others.

A research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , reveals that the region of our brain where egoism lodges is located in the basolateral amygdala, an area that controls instinctive responses of survival. These answers have a lot to do with selfishness or self-empowerment.

This theory could be related to another scientific study that explains why children tend to be selfish with their toys. The report, published last year in the magazine Neuron , pointed out that the immaturity of a certain brain area is related to infantile egoism.

In accordance with Scientific America , the underdevelopment of an area of ​​control of electrical impulses is responsible for the egoistic behavior of small children.

The research involved a group of children between six and 14 years old, who were assigned two similar decision tasks involving the exchange of poker chips with anonymous receiver. The chips were exchanged for prizes.

Task one consisted of an offer that made a child to the receiver and had no consequence, however, the second task required a social strategy, because the anonymous receiver could reject the offer of chips if it was unfair or if he knew that none was going to receive something in return.

In both tests older children behaved similarly. Instead younger children made bad offers and were also more willing to accept them even if they knew they were unfair.

With images of the children's brain it was determined that in the smallest there was less activity in the control of impulses in the prefrontal cortex, the area of ​​self-control and decision making. And you, are you a selfish person?

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Video Medicine: A Selfish Argument for Making the World a Better Place – Egoistic Altruism (April 2024).