Humans tend to get very tribal in whatever they identify with and become especially violent against those in the outgroups. It’s already to the point of being unreasonably hateful and discriminatory.
Using brain imaging, researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University found that such psychotic behavior in humans exists as it increases the activity in the brain’s reward networks.
For their study, they recruited 35 male college students and had them complete a competitive, aggressive task against either a student from their own school (ingroup) or a rival university (outgroup). But truth blinded to them, they were actually playing against a computer.
The investigators found that participants who were more aggressive against students of the rival university exhibited greater activity in the reward circuit regions of the brain. They also found increased activity in decisional areas showing that increased motivation towards outgroup competitors.
They concluded that harming outgroup member is more rewarding and associated with positive emotions. As a result, this helps explain why humans are so easily drawn into intergroup conflicts. Additionally, the areas of the brain associated with motivation and identity.
“This study showed that positive emotions may play a role in motivating intergroup aggression, which suggests many new directions for future research on this topic and informs potential interventions that seek to reduce group conflict,” stated author David Chester.
There is not doubt that competition and sense of belonging is good for our own personal development and mental health, but ultimately, people need to realize we all, every living being, is living on a very small planet and that every living thing is apart of this ingroup. While this primitive, outdated circuitry outlined in the study may have had survival benefits in the earlier stages of human evolution, in today’s modern, CIVILIZED, world, it is outdated and no longer useful. Use your sense of reasoning and logic, and rise above it.
E Lasko et al. Neural mechanisms of intergroup exclusion and retaliatory aggression. Social Neuroscience. DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/fj5ht
