This post is based on Read Montague’s Ted Talk entitled – Behavioral Neuroscientists.
Behavioral Neuroscientists
Montague, and his team, have developed software that measures brain activity during an interaction with two human beings. He explains that humans are inherently social creatures. Even when we are alone, our self image is defined by our view of interactions with other human beings. He gives the example of an interview. When we go into an interview, the person sitting across the table has one image of us and it is our job to send the right messages to that person so that they form a more positive self image of us.
Montague’s team does experiments like the following -
- Give person a $100 bill.
- Allow person A to offer person B some split of the money. ($70 for A and $30 for B or $50 for A and $50 for B, etc.)
- Person B then chooses to accept the offer or not.
- If Person B accepts, then both get the amount that was agreed upon.
- If Person B does not accept, then both of them get nothing.
Common sense would dictate that Person B should accept in any situation. However, the reality is that if Person B is only offered $20, he or she is just as likely to not accept the offer as he or she would accept the offer. A sense of fairness comes into play.
The work that Montague’s team is doing can measure this sort of activity across thousands of interactions and should reveal to us how we truly think and operate without performing intrusive procedures that would have been required in the past.
See the original Ted Talk here - What We Are Learning from our Brains
Behavioral Neuroscientists – Empower Network @ 2012
More online resources on Behavioral Neuroscientists
