“Simon Cowell may appear to relish arguing with his fellow judges when they disagree with him, but new research out today suggests that – at least at a neuronal level – he would find their agreement much more satisfying.
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. The study, published today in the journal Current Biology, suggests that scientists may be able to predict how much people can be influenced by the opinions of others on the basis of the level of activity in the reward area.
In a study of 28 volunteers in the UK, Professor Chris Frith and colleagues examined the effect that having experts agree with a person’s opinions has on activity in their ventral striatum, the area of the brain associated with receiving rewards. Expert opinions about a piece of music produced more activity in this brain area when the subject shared the opinion. Expert opinions could also alter the amount of ventral striatum reward activity that receiving the music could produce – depending on how likely the person was to change his or her mind on the basis of those opinions.”
Read more at Brain Mysteries
Ta Phillis, a wonderful blog post. I agree with everything it says. Let the ventral striatum stimulation commence, you can never have enough of that.
like i care…
So people really are like sheep !
I always get a little worried when people agree with me & assume I must have got it wrong.
My ventral striatum must be one of the parts of my brain that is damdged.
I guess the ‘reward’ part of our brains is like a self-congratulation of our opinions. We’re pleased that someone agrees with what you have to say. Everyone likes that, makes us feel better about ourselves and that we’re not wrong.
LC x
Finally working with a fellow atheist and it feels great : )