LiveScience - Tanya Lewis, 10/03/13
Electrically stimulating the brain can make people comply with social rules more or less, depending on whether they could be punished.Credit: Human brain image via Shutterstock
"The complexity of human interactions is so big, so independent, that our society wouldn’t function without norms, said study researcher Christian Ruff, an economics professor at the University of Zurich, in Switzerland. "Even though humans are very good at following norms, we're always tempted to break them. We need punishment threats to follow correctly," Ruff told LiveScience.
A previous study using function magnetic resonance imaging showed that the right lateral prefrontal cortex (rLPFC) is activated when people follow social norms to avoid being punished. Ruff and colleagues wondered if stimulating this area could make people more or less sensitive to the threat of punishment.
More: LiveScience.com
Comments
Mind control with electric shock therapy
Yes...this happened to my Grandmother when she commited herself many years ago. She said later it was a blessing, but I think she just needed addiction counseling. I heard that after seven years in the hospital she practically ran the place. She enjoyed the new therapy groups that were forming then. I wish I had known her better. I prayed for her every day when I understood. She found me in death, somehow synchronously I lived around the corner from where she was buried then, and I was this residence was only temporary. I felt her soul coming towards. That was the last time I saw that part of my family!
Corporal punishment works well as well...like spanking! I am being sarcastic.