Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 11:01:46 -0400
Subject: HAB: Brain Research and the Return of Universal Human Nature?


The New York Times
July 23, 2002

Why We're So Nice: We're Wired to Cooperate
By Natalie Angier

What feels as good as chocolate on the tongue or money in the bank 
but won't make you fat or risk a subpoena from the Securities and 
Exchange Commission?

Hard as it may be to believe in these days of infectious greed and 
sabers unsheathed, scientists have discovered that the small, brave 
act of cooperating with another person, of choosing trust over 
cynicism, generosity over selfishness, makes the brain light up with 
quiet joy.

Studying neural activity in young women who were playing a classic 
laboratory game called the Prisoner's Dilemma, in which participants 
can select from a number of greedy or cooperative strategies as they 
pursue financial gain, researchers found that when the women chose 
mutualism over "me-ism," the mental circuitry normally associated 
with reward-seeking behavior swelled to life.

And the longer the women engaged in a cooperative strategy, the more 
strongly flowed the blood to the pathways of pleasure.

The researchers, performing their work at Emory University in 
Atlanta, used magnetic resonance imaging to take what might be called 
portraits of the brain on hugs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/23/health/psychology/23COOP.html


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