Praise as Good as Cash to Brain

Rusty · #1 04-24-2008, 07:52 AM

By JULIE STEENHUYSEN
April 23, 2008

Paying people a compliment appears to activate the same reward center in the brain as paying them cash, Japanese researchers said Wednesday.

(ABC News Photo Illustration)
They said the study offers scientific support for the long-held assumption that people get a psychological boost from having a good reputation.

"We found that these seemingly different kinds of rewards -- a good reputation versus money -- are biologically coded by the same neural structure, the striatum," said Dr. Norihiro Sadato of the Japanese National Institute for Physiological Sciences in Okazaki, Japan.

"This provides the biological basis of our everyday experience that personal reputation is felt as rewards," Sadato said in an e-mail.

Sadato's team studied 19 healthy people using a brain imaging technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI.

In one set of experiments, people played a gambling game in which they were told one of three cards would yield a payout. The researchers then monitored the brain activity triggered when the subjects got a cash reward.

Whole Article...

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You can give something very precious to somebody else - free of charge and with very little time expense. I knew that... how about you?

Bada Bing · #2 04-24-2008, 08:23 AM

I beg to differ. I'll trade the "atta boys" for brand new toys, thank you very much.

Cash please!

witchofthedogs · #3 04-24-2008, 09:05 AM

As soon as my mortgage company accepts "Good job" as valid payment of my monthly statement, I'll buy that argument.

Rusty · #4 04-24-2008, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boundchaos

As soon as my mortgage company accepts "Good job" as valid payment of my monthly statement, I'll buy that argument.

AWWW BC, have you even TRIED???

*just kidding*

witchofthedogs · #5 04-24-2008, 09:42 AM

Well, I know that "you suck" has an undesired effect when uttered to their customer service representatives, so "you're wonderful" might actually work.