Ever wondered why we refuse to change our ideals, even when offered cash to do so? The answer lies in your brain, says a new study.
An Emory University neuro-imaging study has revealed that personal values that people refuse to disavow, even when offered cash to do so, are processed differently in the brain than those values that are willingly sold.
“Our experiment found that the realm of the sacred – whether it’s a strong religious belief, a national identity or a code of ethics – is a distinct cognitive process,” said Gregory Berns, director of the Center for Neuropolicy at Emory University and lead author of the study.
Sacred values prompt greater activation of an area of the brain associated with rules-based, right-or-wrong thought processes, the study showed, as opposed to the regions linked to processing of costs-versus-benefits.
“We’ve come up with a method to start answering scientific questions about how people make decisions involving sacred values, and that has major implications if you want to better understand what influences human behaviour across countries and cultures. We are seeing how fundamental cultural values are represented in the brain,” Berns said.
The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record the brain responses of 32 U.S. adults during key phases of an experiment.
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