Noted Elsewhere on Values and Community
That's Fair
27 May 08 The human brain responds to being treated fairly the same way it responds to winning money, eating a desired food or seeing an attractive face, claim a team of UCLA psychologists. They used a brain scan to see how test subjects responded to a fair and unfair offers of money and found that reasonable offers activated the brain's "reward circuitry." But an insulting moinitary offer triggered a region of the brain called the insula, which is associated with feelings of disgust. (Psychological Science)
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Do Violent Movies Take a Bite Out of Crime?
21 Apr 08 Violent movies "deter almost 1,000 assaults on an average weekend," according to two University of California researchers who report that violent crime declines in the days after large numbers of people watch bloodthirsty flicks. One reason, they say, is "voluntary incapacitation" – that is, potential criminals are spending those hours watching violent movies instead of drinking and assaulting others. They say their findings do not contradict laboratory experiments linking violent movies with heightened aggression levels.
(National Bureau of Economic Research)
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