OUR BRAIN REACTS TO INJUSTICE,,

A European investigation has revealed that human reactions to unfair situations cannot be controlled because they are produced automatically. The reason of these reactions is the increased amygdala’s activity.

According to this research, in this type of situations men seem more aggressive than women.

Moreover, when a person refuses to sharing something with another person, the brain of the last one has some mechanisms which make him react immediately. Furthermore, that person’s reaction is linked with his/her feelings of fairness or unfairness.

That’s the reason why investigators proved this justice sense in 35 players and they considered their brain activity with a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

They made up a game which is aimed at proposing a fixed sum of money from one player to another one. After this, they both have to share that money (as you can see, teams are formed by pairs). The last one can accept this suggestion and pick the money or reject it, in which case neither of them receives anything.

“If the sum of money which has to be distribute is one hundred Swedish crowns and they are divided into two players (50 and 50 crowns to each other) all of them accept this because they consider it fair”, says the study’s lead author and also researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Estocolm (Sweden).

Notwithstanding, if a player suggests he takes 80 crowns and gives to the other player just 20 crowns it will be absolutely considered unfair. This means that, almost in a half of these cases, the player who has to receive money rejects the suggestion, although he knows he will lose 20 crowns.

So, through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experts have discovered that the brain area which is aimed at controlling financial decisions is in the amygdala and not in the prefrontal cortex and the insula, just as some other previous studies suggested. This brain region controls feelings of anger and fear and reacts to injustices as well.

After this, investigators can affirm that tendency to reacting in an aggressive way and penalize the player who suggested an unfair distribution of the money was connected to an increased amygdala activity.

It did not happen the same when tranquilizers were delivered to players because they became antianxiety with just a benzodiazepine. In these situations all the players showed less activity in this brain region although the money was unfairly distributed.

In addition, investigators’ studies prove that when a situation like this happens to a woman their reactions are not registered when tranquilizers have been delivered to them, while men respond in any case in an aggressive way.

Finally, another author of the study points out that “The final result may have ethical implications because the use or abuse of some medicines can clearly affect our daily decisions.