Different conflicts demand different resolutions

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 08:33:58 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: The first interesting result was that offering money or material goods in exchange for sacred ones did not make the sacred goods less valuable but more. Expressions of anger and disgust and of the willingness to use violence actually rose among moral absolutists when a deal involving giving up some sacred value was sweetened with material incitements,
the second, more optimistic, result was that the absolutists who rejected with contumely the offer of profane money (or peace) for sacred landwould accept deals that involved their enemies giving up things that they considered sacred . The paper cites both Israeli and Hamas leaders saying that they could make peace if only the other side would apologise for 1948, or recognise formally Israel's right to exist. Demanding this kind of wholly intangible mutual surrender of pride makes no sense on a utilitarian calculus, and yet it may be the only thing to unlock the situation.

Clip Source: www.pnas.org

Sacred bounds on rational resolution of violent political conflict

Abstract

We report a series of experiments carried out with Palestinian and Israeli participants showing that violent opposition to compromise over issues considered sacred is (i) increased by offering material incentives to compromise but (ii) decreased when the adversary makes symbolic compromises over their own sacred values.

the use of material incentives to promote the peaceful resolution of political and cultural conflicts may backfire when adversaries treat contested issues as sacred values.

Instrumental decision-making involves cost–benefit calculations regarding goals and entails abandoning or adjusting goals if the costs outweigh the benefits.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Our experiments tested the general hypothesis that, when reasoning about sacred values, people would not apply instrumental (cost–benefit) calculations but would instead apply deontological (moral) rules or intuitions.

Tags: politics

It is not the dope, it's the dopamine :)

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 08:25:36 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: I think this finding is interesting in the light of the latest and fast growing body of experimental results in neuroscience; finding correlation (some are straight forward, and not very complex) of so called unique attributes to genetics and physiology. this might carry with it a fundamental perceptual change. first we learned that the earth is not the center, than we realized that the human emergence is part of a bigger continuum (evolution that is) and now we come to know that one own psyche is not unique...

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Risk takers seek thrills to compensate for less responsive brain

Researchers have found that impulsive characters are less able to react to dopamine, a substance produced naturally in the brain which triggers feelings of wellbeing and reward.

They believe that this means that these individuals must take bigger risks in order to achieve the same feelings of excitement that others get regularly.

novelty seekers have less of a particular type of dopamine receptor, which may lead them to seek out novel and exciting experiences

"We've found that the density of these dopamine autoreceptors is inversely related to an individual's interest in and desire for novel experiences,"

Previous research has shown that individuals differ in both their number of dopamine receptors and the amount of dopamine they produce, and that these differences may play a critical role in addiction.

Dopamine has long been known to play an important role in how we experience rewards from a variety of natural sources

Tags: neuroscience

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Different conflicts demand different resolutions

Sacred bounds on rational resolution of violent political conflict

Abstract

It is not the dope, it's the dopamine :)

Risk takers seek thrills to compensate for less responsive brain