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The Neuroscience of Fair Play: Why We (Usually) Follow the Golden Rule
We remember the admonition of our “Treat others as you want them to treat you.” But what if being nice was something we were inclined by nature to do anyway? Renowned neuroscientist Donald Pfaff upends our entire understanding of ethics and social contracts with an intriguing the Golden Rule is hardwired into the human brain.
Pfaff, the researcher who first discovered the connections between specific brain circuits and certain behaviors, contends that the basic ethics governing our everyday lives can be traced directly to brain circuitry. Writing with popular science journalist Sandra J. Ackerman, he explains in this clear and concise account how specific brain signals induce us to consider our actions as if they were directed at ourselves—and subsequently lead us to treat others as we wish to be treated. Brain hormones are a part of this complicated process, and The Neuroscience of Fair Play discusses how brain hormones can catalyze behaviors with moral implications in such areas as self-sacrifice, parental love, friendship, and violent aggression.
Drawing on his own research and other recent studies in brain science, Pfaff offers a thought-provoking hypothesis for why certain ethical codes and ideas have remained constant across human societies and cultures throughout the world and over the centuries of history. An unprecedented and provocative investigation, The Neuroscience of Fair Play offers a new perspective on the increasingly important intersection of neuroscience and ethics.
Pfaff, the researcher who first discovered the connections between specific brain circuits and certain behaviors, contends that the basic ethics governing our everyday lives can be traced directly to brain circuitry. Writing with popular science journalist Sandra J. Ackerman, he explains in this clear and concise account how specific brain signals induce us to consider our actions as if they were directed at ourselves—and subsequently lead us to treat others as we wish to be treated. Brain hormones are a part of this complicated process, and The Neuroscience of Fair Play discusses how brain hormones can catalyze behaviors with moral implications in such areas as self-sacrifice, parental love, friendship, and violent aggression.
Drawing on his own research and other recent studies in brain science, Pfaff offers a thought-provoking hypothesis for why certain ethical codes and ideas have remained constant across human societies and cultures throughout the world and over the centuries of history. An unprecedented and provocative investigation, The Neuroscience of Fair Play offers a new perspective on the increasingly important intersection of neuroscience and ethics.
- GenresNeuroscienceNonfiction
300 pages, Hardcover
First published December 15, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 28, 2019
A very important and detailed book on how the anatomy of the human brain, and the molecular interactions of the neurotransmitters and neuropeptides that connect those anatomies (or sub-systems), manifest individual-level behaviours like aggression or reciprocity, and how the complex interactions of these behaviours in groups led to the emergence of the "golden rule" across all known human societies. Most interestingly, the author connects these individual-level interactions with a famous separate study of Robert Axelrod using agent-based simulations to test for optimal strategies on repeated prisoner dilemma games, and finds that he can use the later to "validate" the feasibility of his hypothesis that the origins of human level aggression and compassion at the individual-level and societal-level are ultimately, in large part, a function of genetic level interactions at the micro-scale, expressing themselves in the macro-scale.
This hypothesis has both profound and wide-reaching ramifications across several different social sciences, and cannot be convincingly established in a mass-market general public text like this one. What the author does though, is laid out a path/program by establishing findings (prior to 2007), and discusses some open issues and current work. Much of the first half of the book is dedicated to explaining the anatomy of the human brain, specifically how sense-signals from our body are processed in the Thalamus, whose output is pushed into the Amygdala within the brains signals pathway-network. The Amygdala is the primary sub-system of the brain that is responsible for the sensation of fear, pain, happiness etc. He then outlines the molecular signals network between the Amygdala with other segments of the brain, like the ventral medial nucleus, and how these various sub-systems operate to govern certain emotional/behavioural expressions at the individual level. This part of the book is very involved and detailed, and it helps to draw diagrams as the reader describes it in voice.
It would be impossible to discuss all in a simple outline here, as the findings are messy. What the author shows is that there are no single gene or process that leads to what the author calls "social recognition", the mechanism by which two individuals can empathize with each other, and serves as the foundation of the reciprocity, and hence, "the golden rule". The author constructs a feasibility argument which shows that part of the molecular-level impact that leads to "social recognition" must originate from the system that governs maternal love and care, but that simulations that are run purely on this system, creates agents who're expression in the form of a repeated prisoner's dilemma game is inconsistent with empirical data of actual humans. The author explores other molecular/anatomy pathway networks which may interact with this system that could lead to strategies that are consistent with empirical data of actual humans playing these repeated bargaining games.
The author's implications for what this work would suggest on the origins of war and societal conflict is even more profound if true, and he briefly discusses the hypothesis concerning those notions. Some things I wondered while reading is what, if any, do these hypotheses suggest on why humanity experiences "ethnic warfare", or "racial warfare", though it's unclear to me if such notions have occurred in a large scale beyond Germany's attempts during the second world war. Also, how can one leverage results based on this hypothesis to ameliorate the apparent difficulties of race-relations in multi-ethnic societies? The author only hints at such notions, but in principle, "social recognition" wouldn't be dependent on "race" as perceived or defined by society. It is primarily a chemical /molecular system that informs this recognition, or at least it was when in man's early primate ancestors.
What is interesting to wonder is as primates evolved to depend less on their olfactory senses, and depend more on their audio-visual, how do the computations/processing in that sub-system impact the molecular/chemical interactions that inform social recognition? Historically, it's been the case that where different "groups" of people met, did not always mean conflict or warfare. In the history of Eurasia, many colonies of modern peoples from both Europe and East Asia formed, including some recently "famous" one discovered on the Silk Road, which archaeologist claimed were made up of Roman legionnaires and possibly (Tang?) peoples. Who can tell what their interactions were like, but it seemed to have been robust up to trade flows being maintained in those areas. Yet, people clearly discriminate in modern times based on visual cues on skin-colour and other cosmetic physical features. So the impact of the visual system of the brain must have a unique governing capacity with respect to both aggression and compassion that we do not yet understand (or is not well outlined in this text), and it's not simply additive or subtractive with respect to the propensity to 'socially recognize' other individuals. The most optimistic interpretation from recent history is that the apparent increases in genocides, colonization, and ethnic-based warfare witnessed during the European ascension of 1600 - 1900s were an outlier with respect to the grander narrative of modern human history from pre-history to antiquity, or perhaps the relatively recent magnitude of these acts have more to do with some emergent organizational structure caused by industrialization/mechanization, who's automation of slaughter did not reflect actual malice of people whom these industrial systems were said to be working for.
Though as the book suggestion, current understanding of empirical data from disparate fields and methodologies have concluded that cooperation is the natural default of humans at the individual level. So that's something.
The book is a great motivational text for one to dive deeper into brain anatomy if you are interested in understanding behavioural mannerisms in actual groups of humans, and the text may actually be better for individuals who have some of this background before reading the text. Suffice to say, the dream of connecting a micro-meso-macro set of models of human behaviour in the way the author is proposing is a far ways off based on current understanding and technology. This book is the best mass-market book I've seen that provided real information for one to go on that path. Overall excellent value and parsimony of information, with enough narrative for a subject-matter layman to understand. Highly recommended
This hypothesis has both profound and wide-reaching ramifications across several different social sciences, and cannot be convincingly established in a mass-market general public text like this one. What the author does though, is laid out a path/program by establishing findings (prior to 2007), and discusses some open issues and current work. Much of the first half of the book is dedicated to explaining the anatomy of the human brain, specifically how sense-signals from our body are processed in the Thalamus, whose output is pushed into the Amygdala within the brains signals pathway-network. The Amygdala is the primary sub-system of the brain that is responsible for the sensation of fear, pain, happiness etc. He then outlines the molecular signals network between the Amygdala with other segments of the brain, like the ventral medial nucleus, and how these various sub-systems operate to govern certain emotional/behavioural expressions at the individual level. This part of the book is very involved and detailed, and it helps to draw diagrams as the reader describes it in voice.
It would be impossible to discuss all in a simple outline here, as the findings are messy. What the author shows is that there are no single gene or process that leads to what the author calls "social recognition", the mechanism by which two individuals can empathize with each other, and serves as the foundation of the reciprocity, and hence, "the golden rule". The author constructs a feasibility argument which shows that part of the molecular-level impact that leads to "social recognition" must originate from the system that governs maternal love and care, but that simulations that are run purely on this system, creates agents who're expression in the form of a repeated prisoner's dilemma game is inconsistent with empirical data of actual humans. The author explores other molecular/anatomy pathway networks which may interact with this system that could lead to strategies that are consistent with empirical data of actual humans playing these repeated bargaining games.
The author's implications for what this work would suggest on the origins of war and societal conflict is even more profound if true, and he briefly discusses the hypothesis concerning those notions. Some things I wondered while reading is what, if any, do these hypotheses suggest on why humanity experiences "ethnic warfare", or "racial warfare", though it's unclear to me if such notions have occurred in a large scale beyond Germany's attempts during the second world war. Also, how can one leverage results based on this hypothesis to ameliorate the apparent difficulties of race-relations in multi-ethnic societies? The author only hints at such notions, but in principle, "social recognition" wouldn't be dependent on "race" as perceived or defined by society. It is primarily a chemical /molecular system that informs this recognition, or at least it was when in man's early primate ancestors.
What is interesting to wonder is as primates evolved to depend less on their olfactory senses, and depend more on their audio-visual, how do the computations/processing in that sub-system impact the molecular/chemical interactions that inform social recognition? Historically, it's been the case that where different "groups" of people met, did not always mean conflict or warfare. In the history of Eurasia, many colonies of modern peoples from both Europe and East Asia formed, including some recently "famous" one discovered on the Silk Road, which archaeologist claimed were made up of Roman legionnaires and possibly (Tang?) peoples. Who can tell what their interactions were like, but it seemed to have been robust up to trade flows being maintained in those areas. Yet, people clearly discriminate in modern times based on visual cues on skin-colour and other cosmetic physical features. So the impact of the visual system of the brain must have a unique governing capacity with respect to both aggression and compassion that we do not yet understand (or is not well outlined in this text), and it's not simply additive or subtractive with respect to the propensity to 'socially recognize' other individuals. The most optimistic interpretation from recent history is that the apparent increases in genocides, colonization, and ethnic-based warfare witnessed during the European ascension of 1600 - 1900s were an outlier with respect to the grander narrative of modern human history from pre-history to antiquity, or perhaps the relatively recent magnitude of these acts have more to do with some emergent organizational structure caused by industrialization/mechanization, who's automation of slaughter did not reflect actual malice of people whom these industrial systems were said to be working for.
Though as the book suggestion, current understanding of empirical data from disparate fields and methodologies have concluded that cooperation is the natural default of humans at the individual level. So that's something.
The book is a great motivational text for one to dive deeper into brain anatomy if you are interested in understanding behavioural mannerisms in actual groups of humans, and the text may actually be better for individuals who have some of this background before reading the text. Suffice to say, the dream of connecting a micro-meso-macro set of models of human behaviour in the way the author is proposing is a far ways off based on current understanding and technology. This book is the best mass-market book I've seen that provided real information for one to go on that path. Overall excellent value and parsimony of information, with enough narrative for a subject-matter layman to understand. Highly recommended
November 15, 2013
Pfaff attempts to explain the phenomenon of the golden rule using lossy information processing and neurological processes. An interesting theory! And one well worth, at least, considering.
The downsides: given the presumed target audience he could have benefited by slowing down and explaining the neurobiology of it all in simpler terms, or provided a glossary. As for me the names of the different hormones and the functions of the different brain areas were a bit in one ear and out the other, making it hard to follow. Also, he only appears to have half a book here. The back half of the book flips from talking about the golden rule to talking about neurobiological determinants of aggression. Okay, they're kind of related, but it feels like a 180, and I trust him less and less as he wanders away from neurobiology and toys with the domain of sociology and social policy towards the end.
The downsides: given the presumed target audience he could have benefited by slowing down and explaining the neurobiology of it all in simpler terms, or provided a glossary. As for me the names of the different hormones and the functions of the different brain areas were a bit in one ear and out the other, making it hard to follow. Also, he only appears to have half a book here. The back half of the book flips from talking about the golden rule to talking about neurobiological determinants of aggression. Okay, they're kind of related, but it feels like a 180, and I trust him less and less as he wanders away from neurobiology and toys with the domain of sociology and social policy towards the end.
August 3, 2015
The theories seem OK for as far as they go, but seem a little simplistic to me. Having worked with TBI patients for some years, and jail populations for a similar time, the premise of addressing only theoretically undamaged subjects while seeming to be a proponent of chemical applications for all just doesn't sit very well. Still, it is certainly an interesting piece, and surely on many course reading lists.
Narrator Jack is very good at performing course material. His narration is given at a pace which easily allows for note-taking without having to do the stop/start thing. Combine that with a pleasant voice and clear diction, and you have a winner.
This book was a gift
Narrator Jack is very good at performing course material. His narration is given at a pace which easily allows for note-taking without having to do the stop/start thing. Combine that with a pleasant voice and clear diction, and you have a winner.
This book was a gift
July 26, 2015
I received this audio book as a gift in exchange for a honest and unbiased review. There is tons of information in this book. I had no idea of how deep the conscience goes or how the brain triggers hormones. I was surprised by some of the test results too. This book explains how the brain is wired and how we know that, along with how are behavior is due to our wiring.
The author, Donald W Pfaff, Ph. D. did a good job researching all this information and writing this book. It is very detailed. The narrator, Jack Chekijian delivers a flawless read of this book, making it easier to follow along.
The author, Donald W Pfaff, Ph. D. did a good job researching all this information and writing this book. It is very detailed. The narrator, Jack Chekijian delivers a flawless read of this book, making it easier to follow along.
November 29, 2016
Contains a lot of conclusions to studies, but the "golden rule" doesn't really resonate in it. Good general read about neuroscience though a bit dated now.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews