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The sense of justice depends on the level of serotonin

 
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Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
 
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20 March 2012, 19:42

The sense of justice and the level of serotonin in our brains are interrelated: the more serotonin, the more dishonesty we are willing to forgive for another person.

Representations of what is honest, and what does not, appear in our early childhood. Our first "It's not fair!" We scream in the children's sandbox and continue to yell it all my life - for example, to the car that has overtaken us, standing in a traffic jam, along the roadside (although in this case a child's cry is usually expressed in a non-print form ). We are all for the dishonest always to punish. But it's no secret that different people have different ideas about honesty: someone can afford and others more, someone less. What determines the level of honesty?

Researchers from Kyoto University (Japan) performed the following experiment. They suggested several volunteers play a known psychological game, which allows you to determine the level of tolerance for dishonest offer. The essence of the game is that one of the players (who can be a computer) finds a certain amount of money and offers to divide it. But he can divide this money in different ways: equally or with a margin in his favor. For example, of a hundred rubles you are offered 30, and you are free to accept the offer or refuse. At first glance, it would be more honest to divide everything equally. But in fact this money was found by the one, the other, and he is free to dispose of them as he wishes. And yet this consideration does not often come to people's minds, and that is why many regard the situation as dishonest sharing.

Psychologists found that the "honesty line" in this case lies somewhere in the range of 30-70, that is, less than thirty rubles out of a hundred few people will consider fair and fair share.

This time the researchers decided to compare the psychological results with the picture of the positron emission scan of the brain. With the help of a PET scanner, scientists analyzed the serotonin content in the central nervous system. It turned out that those who have serotonin produced more, have more flexible parameters of honesty. That is, the propensity to agree to a smaller share in the division coincided with an elevated serotonin level in the nuclei of the seam - the area of the brain where this neurotransmitter is synthesized.

The authors emphasize that this is not related to the aggressiveness of man, but it has to do with credulity. Previously, it was shown that low serotonin levels are characteristic of people who overly trust others: it is possible that such individuals compose rather strict rules of behavior as compensation, and as a result they are sensitive even to the slightest injustice.

Serotonin is truly omnipotent: it affects sleep, memory, appetite, a whole complex of physiological processes, from digestion to ejaculation, depends on it. But hardly such a complex cognitive construction, as a sense of justice, is due to the differences of just one substance. Most likely, serotonin here acts together with the frontal lobes of the brain, which are in charge of higher cognitive functions. So while you should be cautious and talk only about the correlation between honesty and serotonin level.

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