29.03.2024

Some people do not have chiefs

In every company there is a man: tell him to do something and he will cease to do so, limit the choice to five options and he will certainly require the sixth.

Aversion to control is one of our (and probably feline) evolutionary traits which affect the most diverse spheres of life. But if the majority of people it is expressed slight dissatisfaction, some dominates and subjugates.

A new study published in the journal of Neuroscience, suggests that the person behaves so, at least for two reasons. The first one perceives control as a sign of mistrust. Second – when he knows little about the behavior and personality of the person who is trying, albeit with good intentions, to limit his freedom.

Looking at the fact that this time happens to the brain, scientists from the University of Bern (Universität Bern) discovered amazing things. In particular, they were able to see that the aversion to control in all its forms is reflected in the brain as synchronizing activity in the two areas.

For this, they monitored the brain activity of University students (51) who played the financial game, where each of the participants were asked to share money with other participants. The students interacted with each other in pairs, and the moderators allowed them to identify some minimal amount that they would like to receive from the partner, if they would have liked. The rules of the game it was suggested that if the minimum amount was still marked, the other student had no right not to give their partner money, although they could reduce the amount at its discretion.

As reported by Live Science, the majority of participants were quite generous, so easily shared with partners in amounts even larger than they eventually remained. However, if the partner asked for some at least, everything except the ten participants usually gave him less money than usual.

Analysis of the questionnaires that students filled out after you allowed to say that a statement about the minimum amount many of them perceived just as an act of mistrust on the part of the partner. And brain scans, conducted at the third stage of the experiment, completed the picture. Here, the scientists saw that controlling the participants showed a higher synchronous activity in the lower parietal lobe and dorsolateral parts of the prefrontal cortex.

It is obvious that the activity of the two areas determines how well we transfer the control and how much inclined to resist him. But this puzzle, however, has not yet been resolved. Because, for example, that the two areas have different functions. And while the sphere of influence of the lower parietal lobe extends to mathematical operations, the reorientation of attention and the processing of distances, part of the prefrontal cortex associated with cognitive control, the acceptance of moral decisions and resolving conflicts.

Scientists explain that the aversion to control – not necessarily a bad thing. But when this primal instinct triggered at the wrong time and the wrong place (for example, during business negotiations), understanding mechanisms that determine it, can help to smooth out the rough edges in a given situation. And if a business meeting with a negative outcome harm a maximum of of the company, in the case of more important things, such as refusal of necessary medical procedures and non-compliance, the consequences can be really serious.

While the research team cannot say exactly why aktiviziruyutsya these brain region and, most importantly, how their activity is associated with a denial of any control. One of the available interpretations, however, says that people who are not inclined to control, perceive the controlling behavior from the outside as the conflict between their common motivation, and the unconscious desire to act against any restrictions.

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