I was listening to the NPR show called Radio Lab today (see below for the exact show), today's episode was about morality. I'm sure all of you have heard about those evolutionary psychology studies on kinship where they ask the participant, through a series of different vignettes, how many non-relatives would they sacrifice in order to save one of their own relatives. Generally, people are more willing to sacrifice more non-kin to save closer kin, but the farther you are, genetically, from that that kin the fewer people you are willing to sacrifice. The radio show referenced that last episode of MASH. I vaguely remember watching the show as a child when I would stay home sick from school and I get parts of it mixed up with F-Troop... Anyway, in the last episode of MASH a village is being attacked by the enemy (I'm not sure if it's the Vietnam War or Korean War) and a women, her baby, and the rest of the village are hiding from the enemy. The baby is sick, runny nose, coughing, sneezing, the whole shebang. Here is the woman's predicament: don't smother your baby and the baby eventually coughs or sneezes, thereby alerting the enemy to your location where they find you, your baby, and the whole village and kill all of you. Or, smother your baby and save yourself and the rest of the village. Researchers gave participants the same theoretical moral dilemma to ponder while they were in an fMRI. They found that two parts of the brain are at odds with each other over this quandary, the empathetic part and the logical part. Eventually, one part wins over the other and you either make an empathetic decision or a logical one. Personally, I think the logical one is also the empathetic one.
Of course I don't know exactly what I would do in that situation and I hope I never have to find out, but as a thought exercise I would definitely chose the life of the village (and my own) over the life of my child. I have sort of a visceral moral reaction to selfishly choosing to sacrifice so many lives for the life of one. From an evolutionary stand point, it doesn't make any sense either; if the enemy finds you, your baby, and the rest of the village are dead meaning your genes will never be passed on to the next generation. Evolutionarily it's more pragmatic to sacrifice the baby and live to reproduce another day, and have the villagers live to reproduce another day. Presumably, you are in some part related to the at least some of the villagers, meaning they can pass your genes on to the next generation too. By that one sacrifice your genes will be passed on to lots of other babies who will grow up and pass their genes along as opposed to not having them passed on at all.
Interestingly, the researchers found that the logical part of the brain is located behind your eyebrows. Last year I took a lot of Kundalini yoga classes and practice from time-to-time. In Kundalini, you're told to close your eyes and focus them up to the center of your brows during mediation. I don't know what it is about that spot, but it really relaxes, makes me see things more clearly, and react smarter compared to when I don't focus my eyes there. Maybe, it's just the placebo effect, but it's amazing how even a short amount of time focusing on my brows changes my mood and behavior. I don't know if it has anything to do with what the researchers in the show found in the fMRI or not, but it is interesting!
Of course I don't know exactly what I would do in that situation and I hope I never have to find out, but as a thought exercise I would definitely chose the life of the village (and my own) over the life of my child. I have sort of a visceral moral reaction to selfishly choosing to sacrifice so many lives for the life of one. From an evolutionary stand point, it doesn't make any sense either; if the enemy finds you, your baby, and the rest of the village are dead meaning your genes will never be passed on to the next generation. Evolutionarily it's more pragmatic to sacrifice the baby and live to reproduce another day, and have the villagers live to reproduce another day. Presumably, you are in some part related to the at least some of the villagers, meaning they can pass your genes on to the next generation too. By that one sacrifice your genes will be passed on to lots of other babies who will grow up and pass their genes along as opposed to not having them passed on at all.
Interestingly, the researchers found that the logical part of the brain is located behind your eyebrows. Last year I took a lot of Kundalini yoga classes and practice from time-to-time. In Kundalini, you're told to close your eyes and focus them up to the center of your brows during mediation. I don't know what it is about that spot, but it really relaxes, makes me see things more clearly, and react smarter compared to when I don't focus my eyes there. Maybe, it's just the placebo effect, but it's amazing how even a short amount of time focusing on my brows changes my mood and behavior. I don't know if it has anything to do with what the researchers in the show found in the fMRI or not, but it is interesting!
No comments:
Post a Comment