Albert AlcaineIntense debates and fights between football fans have the same neural pattern: they alter two brain regions that control impulses and seek consensus, hence people in groups sometimes lose their individuality, take risks they would normally avoid and approach strangers with unprovoked hostility.
Two fairly common examples of such intra-group conflicts are political debates and fights between football fans, where such polarised conflicts can often seriously damage intergroup relations, almost always with destructive consequences.
A study at Beijing Normal University has found the brain patterns behind these reactions . The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is responsible for executive functions such as working memory, cognitive flexibility, planning, inhibition and abstract reasoning. The temporoparietal junction relates to the brain process that allows people to focus their attention on things or, in this case, people.
Research has found that when intragroup violence occurs, these two brain regions play a key role in the members of the groups involved .
While when individuals in the group are calm, the connections between these two areas are stable and flowing, when tensions are present, the connections intensify and lead to intergroup hostility.[ /blockquote].
The curious thing is that the more hostility there is, the greater the synchronisation of the right side of these two brain areas.
This study is not new: previous research has already determined that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex may be involved in deception and lying, as it inhibits the natural tendency to tell the truth . In fact, when this area is damaged, the temporoparietal junction for ethical decision-making is reduced.
The result of this research is interesting because it sheds light on one of the most relevant aspects of social conflict: psychosocial or subjective conflicts, whose causes are attributed to psychological factors.
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What might be a chance finding, and perhaps with few practical applications beyond knowledge, is a starting point for other important questions: the literature of the last hundred years has suggested that patients with Parkinson’s disease have characteristic personality traits such as industriousness, seriousness and inflexibility.
They have also been described as “honest”, indicating a tendency not to deceive others. However, these personality traits may actually be associated with dysfunction of specific brain regions affected by the disease.
A recent study strongly suggests that Parkinson’s disease patients are indeed “honest” and that this personality trait may derive from dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex .
It appears that the human species may soon become even more predictable, doesn’t it?
📎 Alcaine, A. [Albert]. (2024, 11 August). Social and political unrest have the same neural pattern. PsicoPop. https://www.psicopop.top/en/social-and-political-unrest-have-the-same-neural-pattern/
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