Human beings don’t like income inequality, but until now scientists haven’t really known how deep that dislike goes. It turns out the aversion is brain-deep: A team of researchers, using functional MRI technology, has found that the “the reward centers in the human brain respond more strongly when a poor person receives a financial reward than when a rich person does.” Furthermore, even rich people’s brains seem to crave equality. “In the experiment, people who started out rich had a stronger reaction to other people getting money than to themselves getting money,” said Colin Camerer, one of the study‘s coauthors. “In other words, their brains liked it when others got money more than they liked it when they themselves got money.” [%comments]
This is Your Brain on Income Inequality
TAGS: income, inequality
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How do we square this idea with politics, where the thought of income equality is comparable in its distastefulness to using the Flag to clean toilets?
All this proves is that a brain “liking” something is a poor predictor of that person’s behavior.
How does this square with rich conservatives’ idea of letting rich people donate money on their own instead of taxing them? Would rich people like it equally if the money poor people was receiving money that came from them, but they didn’t have control of it?
@Nosybear
I think you’re mistaken about what’s distasteful. It’s not income equality, but how that equality is achieved.
Notice the researcher says “people who started out rich had a stronger reaction to other people getting money than to themselves getting money”. I think you’re assuming the same results would occur if the statement went something like “people who started out rich had a stronger reaction when their own money was taken from them and given to other people.”
To keep this in the realm of economics – all people respond to incentives… are we going to give people an incentive to not work or an incentive to work.
To keep this from being taken in the wrong light – I’m all for helping people who are on hard time, I just prefer to do it willingly through charity as opposed to being forced to do so through taxes/entitlements.
How are they sure the brain reaction is pleasure or “like” ? What if the rich people just hate to see someone else get money more than they enjoy getting it themselves?
Politically incorrect, just wondering as no mention is made of how to resolve what the reaction means…
A ruling class cannot voluntarily give up its own predominance; for this predominance appears to it the sole foundation of the world order. It must defend this predominance; and this it can do only so long as it has hope and self-confidence. But actual conditions cannot give self-confidence to the capitalist class; therefore it creates for itself a hope that has no support in reality. If this class were ever to see clearly the principles of social science, it would lose all faith in its own possibilities; it would see itself as an aging despot with millions of persecuted victims marching in upon him from all directions and shouting his crimes into his ears. Fearfully he shuts himself in, closes his eyes to the reality and orders his hirelings to invent fables to dispel the awful truth. And this is exactly the way of the bourgeoisie. In order not to see the truth, it has appointed professors to soothe its troubled spirit with fables. Pretty fables they are, which glorify its overlordship, which dazzle its eyes with visions of an eternal life and scatter its doubts and dreams as so many nightmares. Concentration of capital? Capital is all the time being democratised through the increasing distribution of stocks and bonds. Growth of the proletariat? The proletariat is at the same time growing more orderly, more tractable. Decay of the middle class?
So how come if we question someone’s inheritance that’s “class warfare” but it’s our patriotic duty to criticize the size of police pensions?
@Brett:
Income equality has never and will never be achieved by charity, so essentially you’re saying “Let them eat cake.”
I’m sure Sarah Palin and the Taliban would agree with you, but personally I’ve had enough of that kind of con game.