In the News (from ScienceDaily): “A neuro-imaging study shows that personal values that people refuse to disavow, even when offered cash to do so, are processed differently in the brain than those values that are willingly sold.

“‘[The] experiment found that the realm of the sacred — whether it’s a strong religious belief, a national identity or a code of ethics — is a distinct cognitive process’…The results were published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

“Sacred values prompt greater activation of an area of the brain associated with rules-based, right-or-wrong thought processes, the study showed, as opposed to the regions linked to processing of costs-versus-benefits. …

“Research participants who reported more active affiliations with organizations, such as churches, sports teams, musical groups and environmental clubs, had stronger brain activity in the same brain regions that correlated to sacred values.”

Comment: Decisions regarding what is correct and incorrect are established by the environment and have a greater weight than individual decisions regarding pleasure and reward. That is why the only way to change oneself is to choose an appropriate environment.
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