In yet another case of science undoing the modern notion of no differences between sexes, researchers have noticed brain wave disparity in the way that men/women view the punishment of cheaters. In short, men love it, women not so much. How many times have you seen some version of this discussion between a man and his wife?

Wife: “Ahh, the poor man”
Husband: “Screw him, it’s his own damn fault for cheating”
Wife: “But I still feel sorry for him”
Husband: “Like I said, screw the cheatin’ bastard”
Wife: “You’re mean”
Husband: “Make me some eggs.”

It turns out that the brains of men and women might be hardwired to take these relative positions. While studying brain pattern changes, scientists scanned the brains of 16 men and 16 women after the subjects played a game in which their opponents played fairly or obviously cheated. Cheaters and non-cheaters players were both given mild electrical shocks.

Both men’s and women’s brains showed that they empathized with the fair player’s pain. However when the cheater was shocked, men’s brains showed no empathy while the women’s brains still showed an empathy response. Furthermore, in another brain area associated with feelings of reward, men’s brains, showed an increased response to the cheater’s shock, women’s brains did not.

That’s right, it’s natural for men to feel good when a cheater (or enemy, opponent, or smelly roommate) gets zapped. We’re just built that way and it certainly explains a lot of what’s on YouTube.

Source: USNews

tags: brain

This entry was posted on Friday, July 28th, 2006 at 7:10 am by Insider and is filed under Big Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.